Arundel-Kerr Produce

New potential customers are usually hard to find,  but new customers with a current project and money to spend are a very rare beast.  Late last year however Herberts discovered that very animal in Brigg, North Lincolnshire.
The AKP Group were looking to purchase a high output multi screen Grading line for potatoes at their Kirmington Potato Services site at Elsham. They approached Herberts with their concept ideas. Their initial requirement was for 3 gentle flow twin box fillers which were for urgent use and so Herberts put together a deal which meant they could be up and running within 2 weeks. The Grader design followed on and after several joint discussions and a very productive meeting at the Herbert Open days a final layout was approved, costed and after some hard negotiations, finally ordered.

The large static system utilises an existing 15 ton Herbert Bulk Hopper as its feeder, a unit AKP had purchased secondhand a few years previous and had used on one of their farm locations.  An in line presentation conveyor after the hopper gives a gentle feed and also allows the addition of an alternative cleaner at a later date. A continental web module pre-cleans the potatoes prior to a pre-inspection table where waste is removed and delivered outside the building by an integrated waste handling system.

The crop is then split into four sizes with three sizes being individually inspected prior to delivery into the automatic twin box fillers. The largest size travels over the end into a extra wide box filler supplied with the grading line. The latest phase of the project has just been ordered and so by the end of July all box fillers will be fitted with weigh cell systems to give complete management information.

Richard Arundel, AKP Group Managing Director said,  “Having taken the decision to purchase the Kirmington Potato Services business, the next logical step for the group was to centralise the companies grading and storage activity on the 9 acre 20,000t storage site. The grader design was critical to the purchase decision as the grader has to be capable of handling the groups 500 acres of potatoes produced locally in North Lincolnshire.It also had to grade and split Maris Peer and Salad crops grown in Suffolk, as well as handling 25,000t of Imported Potatoes. We have experience of Herbert Graders on farm so to some extent we knew what we were getting in terms of build quality. The key to winning this business was Herberts’ ability to hit some very tight timescales and deliver a high quality project to a demanding specification. This they have achieved and we are very pleased with the outcome and are confident that the equipment backed by Herberts’ service will mean that we don’t have to look at another project like this for a long time”.

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