Funding boost should allow dairy to put end to leaky milk bottles
Rosalind Griffiths
Shetland Farm Dairies has today been awarded funding towards new equipment that will eliminate the problem of leakage from their milk bottles.
The council’s special development committee approved the funding, which has delighted dairy manager Gerry Byers.
Mr Byers has been struggling with the dairy’s old filling equipment for some time and had been hoping for funding for a new system, which will cost nearly £200,000.
On hearing the dairy would get funding, Mr Byers said: “A complete new filling line is going into the dairy. It is due for delivery in December and will be installed in January.
“It’s going to eliminate leaking and there will be a complete change of style. The milk will come in new-style chunky, stubbier plastic bottles. There will be new labels with photographs of some areas of Shetland as a background.” The sizes, one pint, one-litre and two-litre bottles will still be the same. Cream will also have new packaging, in bottles rather than cartons.
The leaking of milk had been a problem since before Mr Byers took up his job, and, he said, he had been left with the job of sorting it out.
To this end he had researched the best type of filling line, and opted for one widely used in dairies in England and Ireland.
He said: “I did my homework, I went to five or six dairies to research the lines.”
He said there are only two or three types of line in use in dairies throughout the world, and the “reputable” one he has opted for is American.
Mr Byers said is “excited” about getting the new line, although it is “not before time”.
In the future the line may be used for new products, such as flavoured milk. “But I want to get rid of this [leakage] problem first.”
Jim Leask
I hope this also solves the problems we have had with too many of the botlles we have bought lately! An unacceptable percentage of them have ‘gone off’ before their use by date. I understand all the support local arguments but when you buy something that ends up getting dumped and leaves you with out a product you need at that moment, your patience wears thin!
Well done to the company for their efforts in trying to resolve product issues and I really do hope this leaves Shetland Milk in a position where it can meet the needs of its customers.