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IN THE USA, bourbon whiskey is a national spirit with tradition. About 98% of distilleries can still be found in Kentucky. Around half of the bourbon produced in Kentucky every year is a Jim Beam brand, including the Jim Beam White Original and other variants, such as Jim Beam Rye, Jim Beam Black, Jim Beam Devil’s Cut and Red Stag by Jim Beam in the flavours Black Cherry, Honey Tea and Spiced. In 2012, Beam sold more than seven million cases full of Jim Beam spirits worldwide. Sales are expected to rise in 2013 as global demand for bourbon grows.
Although Jim Beam brands make up the lion’s share of revenue at 20% of total sales, the selection of bourbons has now been joined by other spirits, including Maker’s Mark bourbon, Pinnacle vodka, Sauza tequila, Courvoisier cognac, Canadian Club whisky and Teacher’s scotch. There are also several rising stars in the Beam portfolio, such as Skinnygirl cocktails, Knob Creek bourbon, Hilbeggan Irish whiskey, Hornitos tequila and Cruzan rum, for instance. National specialities are DeKuyper cordials (USA), Larios gin (Spain) and Sourz liqueur (Great Britain).
With all of these brands and many others, Beam is the largest spirits company in the USA and holds fourth place amongst sellers of premium spirits worldwide. In 2012, the company sold 38 million cases, realising sales of $2.5 billion. Its activities are split across three sales regions, the USA being the most significant with a share of 58%. North America is followed by Europe/Middle East/Africa at 22%, with Asia Pacific/South America at 20%.
KHS wrap-around packers at Beam’s largest plant
Of the 21 million cases of Beam products produced in the USA per annum, the plant in Frankfort, Kentucky, makes 12 million. The plant’s warehouse can hold about 21 million litres (175,000 barrels). Frankfort operates nine lines in two or sometimes three shifts, four of which are equipped with a wrap-around packer each from KHS. Of these four packers, two are Innopack Kisters WP A-H in the Advanced series which cater for Beam’s high-capacity lines (these have rates of up to 70 cycles per minute). The other two are Innopack Kisters WP 030s which can run at up to 30 cycles per minute on the lower capacity lines. The two Innopack Kisters WP A-H machines at Frankfort package various sizes of glass and PET bottle into packs of 6 and 12, with the two smaller machines processing one size of PET bottle only as packs of 12. It packs a more or less equal number of PET and glass bottles. Byron DuBois, manager of the Frankfort plant said, “The popularity of spirits in PET bottles is continuing to rise. This is thanks to the many advantages of PET, such as its light weight and unbreakability. Another reason is that on first sight our PET bottles look hardly any different from glass bottles and thus have an excellent visual impact on consumers.”
First impressions - positive and lasting
Whether glass or PET bottles are processed, according to John Ballard, maintenance manager at Beam Inc., investing in the company’s four new Innopack Kisters wrap-around packers was an excellent idea. “As soon as they’d been installed at our plant, they all began producing to our fullest satisfaction. Our first impressions were both positive and lasting. It was therefore obvious that whenever we had to invest in a replacement packaging machine in the recent past, we always opted for KHS technology.” The decision to procure the first Innopack Kisters WP A-H was reached in 2010.