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March 2014 | $10
www.canadianpackaging.com
Bret Mason,
Associate Director
of Operations,
Sleeman Breweries Ltd.
Ark Skupien,
Technical Manager,
Sleeman Breweries Ltd.
Rob Maarse,
Packaging Manager,
Sleeman Breweries Ltd.
Bottoms Up!
A palletizing overhaul keeps Sleeman’s home brewery
up to speed with soaring marketplace status
Publication mail agreement #40069240.
Story on page 12
Flying the coop 
Page 20
In this issue: Packaging for Shelf-Life • Stretchwrapping • Product ID Now
Cover Story
CLEAR PATH TO GROWTH
Popular Canadian beermaker brews up a potent mix of packaging line efficiency and
patient brand-building to take over the domestic beer market’s sweet middle ground
F
ew beverages are as universally enjoyed,
adored and revered as beer—­often cited as
the third-most popular drink on the planet
after water and tea—and it’s hardly surprising that
just about every developed country in the world
where alcohol consumption is legal boasts at least
one or two national beer brands to keep that collective local thirst well-quenched during both the
good and the more troubled times.
Having been around for more than 9,500 years,
according to credible scientific evidence, the
world’s oldest fermented beverage has withstood
countless epic conf licts, falls of empires and entire
civilizations, catastrophic plagues and all sorts of
other man-made and natural calamities not only
with its reputation intact, but in fact still showing
as much growth potential and mass appeal worldwide as ever—this century no exception.
And although much of that modern-day growth
will occur in places other than the traditional mature,
slow-growth markets like Canada, the U.S. and western Europe, it seems that there’s always room for a
truly innovative industry newcomer with something
really special and unique to offer the marketplace.
And while a newcomer is arguably no longer the
most accurate term to describe a company that
marked its modern-day quarter-century anniversary a year ago, there is no shortage of youthful
enthusiasm, optimism and exuberance to provide
a lively backdrop to the continuous, around-theclock beer production and packaging taking place
at the Sleeman Breweries Ltd. brewing complex
in Guelph, Ont.
Rich History
Started back up in 1988 from a heritage tracing to
1834 by company founder John Sleeman—replicating a famed family ‘black book’ of traditional recipes
once used by his forefathers to smuggle Canadianmade suds into the U.S. during the Prohibition
era—today’s Sleeman may no longer be the ‘new kid
on the block’ challenging the country’s traditional
well-entrenched marketplace duopoly of venerable
brewing giants MolsonCoors and Labatt, but it’s
a fair trade-off for a hard-earned significant share of
the total Canadian beer market.
Operating as a subsidiary of Japanese-owned
brewing giant Sapporo Breweries Limited
since 2006, Sleeman’s rise to national prominence has been well-ref lected in recent years with
well-executed integration of several popular
regional craft-brewers—notably the Vernon, B.C.based Okanagan Spring Brewery in 1996 and
Unibroue of Chambly, Que., in 2004—that have
enabled the company to increase its geographic
reach, production capacity and product portfolio
in a meaningful enough way to cement its status
as Canada’s third-largest beer producer by volume.
This acquisition-driven growth was underpinned
by the constant expansion of the original Guelph
brewery over the years, which has grown from a
smallish 50,000-square-foot operation with 35
employees into an imposing, 120,000-square-foot
12 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
From Left: Sleeman Breweries packaging manager Rob
Maarse, technical manager Ark Skupien, and associate
director of operations Bret Mason strike a pose with
some of the company’s unique product packaging
near the entrance to the brewer’s on-site retail shop,
which also serves as reception area for the busy,
120,000-square foot Guelph production facility (inset)
originally started up by John Sleeman back in 1988.
CANADIAN PACKAGING • March 2014
Cover Story
A low back-pressure SystemPlast chain conveyor from
Emerson Industrial Automation helps ensure a smooth
ride for corrugated trays filled with Sleeman beer cans all
the way to the palletizing station.
Installed at the Guelph brewery about two years ago, the
fully-automatic Alvey 910 model palletizer manufactured
by Intelligrated is built for continuous, around-the-clock
production speeds of up to 125 cases per hour, with the
machine’s innovative slat dividers (inset) helping ensure
gentle product handling and to provide a broad choice of
layer patterns for optimal operational flexibility.
building employing over 200 people on a threeshift, 24/7 brewing and 24/5 packaging schedules
to keep up with buoyant market demand for the
company’s f lagship Sleeman Original Draught brand
and other popular domestic beer brands.
Today, the company’s vast product portfolio also
comprises the easy-drinking Sleeman Clear 2.0
and Light brands—along with the time-honored
product family made up of unique craft brews like
Sleeman Cream Ale, Honey Brown Lager, Silver Creek
Lager, Fine Porter, India Pale Ale (IPA) and Dark/
Rousse—as well as the parent company’s worldrenowned Sapporo premium draught.
With annual output of just over one million
hectoliters, a rough equivalent of 13 million cases of
24 bottles, the Guelph plant nowadays houses three
separate dedicated production lines, with the keg
line accounting for about five per cent of the output; the bottling line for about 30 per cent; and the
canning line for the rest of beer production.
According to Sleeman’s national director of procurement Steve Wilkie, many of the capital investment projects taking place at the Guelph facility in
recent years were undertaken to meet the growing
Canadian market demand for canned beers.
Strong Enough
This strong Canadian beer market trend prompted the
Guelph operation to install a state-of-the-art KHS
canning line in 2002, Wilkie relates, and follow up
with continuous upgrades to canning capacity in the
years since, including commissioning of new equipment from some of the beer production machinery’s
leading players such as Krones, MeadWestvaco,
Sidel and, more recently, Intelligrated.
As Wilkie explains, “One of the key trends that
Sleeman, along with other brewers, have had to
deal today with is the fast-growing popularity of
cans among Canadian consumers.
“Recognizing this trend, along with the overall growth of the business, we started to look for
opportunities to increase overall throughput of
the canning line,” says Wilkie, relating that as the
production and variety of the canned products
increased, so did the various bottlenecks related to
the canning line’s original equipment—particularly in the end-of-line packaging area.
“Whereas the can line originally started out 10
years ago as a single-shift operation, we are now
running three full shifts on the line,” the brewery’s
packaging manager Rob Maarse told Canadian
Packaging on a recent visit to the Guelph plant.
“We managed the growth for a while the best
we could with some incremental upgrades,” recalls
the brewery’s technical manager Ark Skupien, but
ultimately the company realized that it would need
to modernize its palletizing and other end-of-line
machinery to keep up with the increased output.
“We had a very old piece of equipment that was
originally sufficient for our needs at the time of
installation,’ relates Skupien, “but as our complexity increased with all the different package sizes,
more frequent changeovers and higher throughputs, it became a key bottleneck—and a palletizer
is not a good spot to have it.”
Adds Maarse: “The main constraint was believed
to be the direct result of the original palletizing
equipment capability and reliability, with further
analysis demonstrating a higher degree of failures
around 12-pack SKUs (stock-keeping units), with
the added number of turns and complex pallet patterns compared to other sizes.
“The original unit was also reaching end of life
with increased breakdowns, and it was unable to
meet future speed increases of the line,” he says.
According to Maarse and Skupien, the Sleeman
plant worked together with leading engineering con-
sultants Linetec Solutions for about a year to study
and evaluate all the available upgrade options, before
ultimately setting on the fully-automatic Alvey 910
palletizing system manufactured by Intelligrated, a
leading manufacturer of automated material handling and end-of-line packaging equipment and
machinery headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“At the time, the Alvey 910 system was determined to be the best choice to handle our future
speed demands and multiple SKUs,” recalls Maarse.
Between the Lines
Adds Skupien: “We looked at the more automated
and robotics-based solutions and the more traditional,
conventional-design solutions, and we’ve picked
somewhere in between with the Alvey 910 palletizer.
“It met our criteria for being very f lexible, very
repeatable, and being relatively easy-to-adapt to the
new SKUs,” says Skupien, estimating the total palletizing system investment at a little over $1 million.
According to both Maarse and Skupien, it was
money well-spent.
“As a result of this installation, the can line has
seen an increase in throughput of nearly 20 per
cent,” notes Maarse. “Overall, we are very satisfied with the performance of the unit to date, and
we are confident that it can meet our future speed
and SKU requirements.”
Skupien agrees: “We generally had a good idea of
what this technology was capable of, and after we
The fully-automatic Alvey 910 inline palletizer from
Intelligrated requires only one operator to monitor its
operations and to perform routine quality control checks.
March 2014 • CANADIAN PACKAGINGWWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 13
Cover Story
The Topmatic rotary filler from Krones handles all of
the Guelph plant’s bottling production requirements,
including the inline application of neck labels (inset) onto
the company’s signature-clear glass bottles.
studied and estimated what the capabilities would
be on this line, we chose a machine that would
satisfy both our current and future requirements for
at least five years down the road, while improving
our throughput, speed and changeover efficiencies.
“The fact that Alvey 910 is based on a conventional
palletizing design was also important to us,” he states.
“We didn’t want to introduce a very big step up in
technology for our workforce; we wanted something
that our own people could maintain from the ‘get go.’
“We sent a small group of our people to
Intelligrated for initial training, which we followed up with some on-site training here for other
operations and maintenance staff,” he says, “and
generally we’ve been able to maintain it on our
own since we have installed it.”
That said, Skupien is quick to extend credit to the
helpful staff at Intelligrated Canada Limited,
particularly customer service and support manager
Michael Bell, for helping ensure smooth system
startup and provide superior after-sales support.
“We were running product within the first week
of the installation,” says Skupien, describing the
installation as a truly collective team effort also
involving Linetec Solutions and Sleeman’s own
engineering and maintenance staff.
“Intelligrated has been very helpful in sourcing
parts and in generally being very responsive whenever we would need their help.
“Even though we have been able to develop some
new palletizing patterns on this machine with our
own people, we have also called on them for some
technical help and suggestions now and then, and
they’ve always been very responsive,” he adds.
Happy to Help
“It’s just nice to know that they’re always there in
case we have some new challenges to handle.
“We are very happy with the system’s performance to date,” says Skupien, stressing that minimizing machine downtime is one of the key
competitive tactics that a high-throughput operation like the Guelph brewery has at its disposal.
“Running under a tight schedule like we are
means that any losses we may suffer this week cannot be made up during the next week,” he point
out.
“We really have zero margin for error—that’s just
the reality dictated to us by the market,” Skupien
asserts.
“Hence we challenge ourselves everyday to
improve our process f low, while reducing the margin for error further and further.
“We have spent a lot of capital to get to where
we are now, and we realize that it’s our gains in
A VideoJet 1710 small-character continuous inkjet coder
performs high-speed coding onto the passing glass bottles.
efficiency—be it throughput, speed, changeover,
operator training, etc.—that hold the key to our
gains in capacity.
“That’s why we are comfortable with our choice
of the Alvey 910 palletizer—this machine is a
world-class machine that is capable of doing anything that any other brewer’s canning line can do,”
Skupien states.
To enhance the new palletizer’s productivity
gains, the Sleeman plant has also installed a refurbished, heavy-duty, fully-automatic ITW Muller
stretchwrapping system for securing the palletized
loads of beer cases to the shipping pallets, which
are then automatically conveyed to their shipping or storage destinations immediately after the
stretchwrap film has been applied.
While the canning line has been getting most of
the attention at the Guelph facility in recent years
in terms of new machinery installation, the company has also undertaken significant marketing
efforts to reinforce its market image.
In large part, this involved playing up the notorious ‘iconic heritage’ of its signature clear-glass,
(Left) Manufactured by R.A. Jones, the Maxim Beverage
Muiltipacker system at the Sleeman plant is capable of
processing up to 3,000 cans or 1,800 bottles per minute.
(Bottom) Heavy-duty drive motors from SEW-Eurodrive
help ensure reliable power transmission and distribution
for the hardworking Alvey 910 high-case palletizer.
14 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
CANADIAN PACKAGING • March 2014
Cover Story
An air-knife system supplied by R.E. Morrison helps
eliminate all moisture and condensation from the passing
beer bottles before they are packed into cases.
Manufactured by Owens-Illinois, the iconic Sleeman
clear-glass beer bottles are widely credited for quick
market growth of the company’s flagship beer brands.
unique-shaped glass bottles that first captured the
Canadian beer-lovers’ fancy and imagination back
in the 1990s with their see-through
‘nothing to hide’ packaging presentation that offered consumers a refreshing break from the industry-standard,
brown-colored containers sporting
multiple product labels further disguising the product’s natural look and
color.
last year to highlight the segmentation between our
core lagers and our ‘craft’ offerings, adopting unique
True Colors
“Sleeman has long been recognized
by Canadian consumers for its clear
bottle that allows the true color of
each beer to be fully appreciated,”
says the brewer’s national brand manager Amy Dean.
“It is an icon of the brand that sets
Sleeman apart from competitors by
reminding consumers of its heritage
and history,” Dean explains.
“In 2013 the brand underwent a
visual refresh, including introduction
of a new logo, bottle label, can and
carton graphics, and the consumer
and industry response to date has
been very positive”
Says Dean: “We redesigned the
entire portfolio of Sleeman products
it’s what’s
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FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 111
Sealed Air’s Diversey Care hypogel
dispensing system helps the plant maintain
a strict sanitation and hygienic protocol.
Visit us at www.cccabox.org to learn more.
Proud supporter of the Paper & Paperboard
Packaging Environmental Council (PPEC)
March 2014
15
Cover Story
An incline conveyor swiftly transfers opened beer cases towards the KHS case-packing station to be filled with bottles.
designs for two different segments, but there was
never any question of making changes to the iconic
clear bottle.
“The Sleeman bottle is such an icon in the beer
market, that even when it’s imitated by competition, it is readily seen as just that—an imitation,”
she states.
Produced for Sleeman exclusively by the OwensIllinois glass container manufacturing plant in
Brampton, Ont., the curvy-shaped, 341-ml bottles
are now compatible with every provincial recycling
stream across Canada, relates Darlene Fidler, national
procurement manager for packaging materials,
despite weighing a little more than industry-standard
bottles due to the extra bit of glass used to give the
container its wide-shouldered profile for accommodating trademark and logo embossing directly onto
the glass surface.
According to the brewer, each clear-glass
Sleeman’s brand bottles is reused 13 to 18 times
on average before eventually being crushed and
melted down for reuse.
“Our founder John Sleeman has fought a lot of
battles over the years to keep this bottle and to
earn it returnable status in every province, most
recently in New Brunswick in 2006,” says associate director of operations Bret Mason, proclaiming
the company’s deep-rooted commitment to sustainable manufacturing and packaging throughout
all of its operations, including the recently-leased,
100,000-square-foot warehousing facility operating just down the street from the brewery.
Full Commitment
“Beer companies in general are good at waste diversion, but for us it’s a real company-wide commitment,” observes Fidler, pointing out that Sleeman
operates its own wastewater treatment plant on-site.
“Sustainability is really important to us, our supply chain partners and our packaging vendors,” she
proudly states.
“Any material that comes to us has to be 100-per-
The network of Sidel conveyors carrying Sleeman’s bottles
through their rinsing, filling and packaging stages are
powered by heavy-duty SEW-Eurodrive electric motors.
cent recyclable or reusable,” points out Fidler. “We
have annual audits of our waste diversion and recycling practices conducted by an outside company,
Efficient Waste Management.
“Our current diversion rate is about 98 per cent,”
Fidler reveals, “with about 30 per cent of the
remainder accounted by organics and paper towels.
“We launched a new program for organics and
paper towel recycling in October of 2013, and
we’re looking forward to seeing the results of this
program in our next audit in the fall.
“There is very little waste in our facility and that is
something we are all very proud of,” Fidler enthuses,
while complimenting the efforts of company’s key
packaging suppliers—including Ball Packaging
(cans), MeadWestvaco (folding cartons) and
Atlantic Packaging Products (corrugated cases
and trays)—for helping the brewer consistently
achieve its environmental goals and targets.
Toronto-based Atlantic Packaging Products Limited has long been the preferred supplier of pre-printed corrugated retail cases for packing Sleeman’s bottled products.
16 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
CANADIAN PACKAGING • March 2014
Cover Story
Fabbri_2013Feb_MeatPkgAd_PoultryDrumsticks_CP_Layout 1 2/3/14 2:19 PM Page 1
Colorful palletized loads of different
brands of Sleeman beer products await
their turn in the dock area to be loaded
for transport to the nearby warehouse or
direct delivery to customer.
“We also do monthly updates and
annual education sessions for all our
employees, updating them on our
programs and helping them understand where all the materials go in our
closed-loop system, which we have
now had in place for the last seven
years,” says Fidler, lauding all of the
company’s hourly and salaried staff
for maintaining Sleeman’s ongoing
environmental improvements, as well
as keep growing the brewer’s market
share.
People Power
“We are focused on experienced and
well-trained employees to support
our growth,” she states.
“It’s in our company’s mission statement: Better beer, better people, getting better.”
Adds Fidler: “A key reason Sleeman
has been so successful is that we have
a wide variety of products with broad
product families.
“That’s because we are actively
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A close-up of the Filtec bottle inspection
system used to verify each container’s
surface quality and structural integrity.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 113
Reiser Canada
1549 Yorkton Court #4, Burlington, ON L7P 5B7 • (905) 631-6611
Reiser
725 Dedham Street, Canton, MA 02021 • (781) 821-1290
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2013
Leading the food industry in processing and packaging solutions.
18
March 2014
Cover Story
competing in all
four core segPlease see a video of Intelligrated’s
ments of the marfully-automatic Alvey 910 model
ket—premium,
palletizer in operation at
mainstream, craft
Sleeman’s Guelph facility at
and imports,” she
www.canadianpackaging.com
states. “It’s important for us as a
Canadian
beermaker to offer Canadians high-quality beer for all sorts of occasions.”
Skupien concurs: “Even though we have gone from producing very small
batches to much larger batches of beer, it’s still the same process and we still
operate a copper cladded kettle.
“It’s always about making one beer at a time and not rushing the process,
and we take our time with everything from fermentation to aging,” states
Skupien. “Our grain-to-bottle time is much longer that what our competitors
typically do, and our growth in the marketplace is proof that our commitment
to quality, authenticity and craftsmanship is widely appreciated by Canadians
across the entire country.”
For More Information:
Intelligrated Industries Canada Limited
410
KHS GmbH
411
Krones Machinery Co. Ltd.
412
MeadWestvaco Canada LP
413
Ball Packaging Products Canada Inc.
414
Owens-Illinois, Inc.
415
Atlantic Packaging Products Limited
416
ITW Muller
417
Linetec Solutions
418
Nordson Canada, Limited
419
R.E. Morrison Equipment Inc.
420
VideoJet Canada Ltd.
421
Sidel Canada Inc.
422
R.A. Jones & Co.
423
Filtec424
Sealed Air Diversey Care
425
Technical Adhesives Limited
426
A fully-palletized load of corrugated trays loaded with packs of canned beer is secured
and fully stabiized with a few layers of stretchwrap film applied by a refurbished, fullyautomatic Octopus series rotary-ring stretchwrapping system from ITW Muller.
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March 2014
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FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 114
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