All set for the next decade
Swiss Rivella AG decides on KHS upgrade for Innopack Kisters packaging equipment and benefits from wide ranging advantages
Reinhold Kuntz* In 2012, the Swiss soft drink Rivella will be celebrating its 60th birthday and will be looking back on an eventful history. An eventful history which, amongst other things, has led to Rivella being one of the best-known and most popular brands in Switzerland today. According to a market study by the Young & Rubicam Group, Rivella has become one of the Top 20 power brands in the country. An eventful history, in which, with innovative technical systems, KHS has successfully participated for more than 30 years. Roger Wymann, Maintenance Manager of Rivella AG says, "We rely on KHS equipment in all our filling and packaging lines. Even in retrospect, we believe that this is exactly the right strategy, for as well as the technical solution, KHS service and advice are always spot-on." The most recent service and advice provided by KHS was to inform Rivella in good time that KHS' suppliers had given notice that the supply of spare parts for the machine control and drive equipment for all Innopack Kisters packaging machines made before 2000/2001 was no longer guaranteed. This means that these Innopack Kisters packaging machines require conversion to new control and drive equipment to continue to ensure their availability. "KHS wrote to us on this matter and proposed an appropriate conversion package for our Innopack Kisters SP shrink packer which has been in operation since 2000", says Wymann. "We then discussed the subject of conversion versus new investment with KHS. As we are extremely satisfied with our shrink packer, we finally made the specific decision to opt for a conversion. This was carried out within a period of just two weeks. We are extremely satisfied with the result. Spare parts for our Innopack Kisters SP are now guaranteed to be available for the next 10 years. We also benefit from many other advantages which accompany the conversion." The recipe remains a secret The Rivella success story basically began in 1950. In that year, Robert Barth obtained a whey beer recipe which he tinkered with continuously. * Service Sales Support, KHS GmbH, Bad Kreuznach, Phone: +49 (671) 852-2510 Barth experimented with milk serum concentrate obtained from whey, mineral water and herbal flavorings until he had developed a beverage which he felt tasted particularly good. He kept the recipe for this new soft drink to himself. To the present day, it is securely locked away in a safe and is known to only a few entrusted persons. The new development was also missing a suitable brand name. Barth's suggestion was that the brand name should be short, memorable and easy to pronounce in all languages. Derived from the Tessin village "Riva San Vitale" and the Italian term "Rivelazione" (translated as "revelation"), Barth finally decided on the name Rivella. Guiding principle for all staff "We are Rivella" The moment finally arrived in 1952 and Barth founded Rivella AG. At that time, he produced the Rivella soft drink brand together with 14 employees. Today, more than 250 people work for the company and see themselves as "part of the growth", "part of the consumers", "part of innovation" and "part of Rivella", in full accord with the company philosophy. "We are Rivella" is the consistent guiding principle for all Rivella staff. A company value, which has certainly made a significant contribution to the brand's success and will continue to do so in the future. Rivella has colors From the very start of activities, Rivella has been bottled exclusively in brown bottles in order to protect the product from the effects of light. To the present day, the brown bottle is an important part of the Rivella brand. As is the white inscription on a red background, which characterizes the original brand product, Rivella Rot (Rivella Red). As time went by, in addition to Rivella Rot, the company developed a whole brand family to satisfy different consumer requirements. Today as in the past, Rivella Rot, the original beverage, which has remained unchanged since 1952, represents the enjoyable experience of Rivella after doing sports and the replenishment of energy. Rivella Blau (Rivella Blue), established in 1958 as the first European light beverage on the market, is intended for all consumers who want to quench their thirst with a light drink and who love freedom and conviviality. Incorporated into the Rivella family in 1999, Rivella Grün (Rivella Green) with extracts of green tea is intended to appeal particularly to people who perform intellectual tasks. The right drink from childhood to old age All in all, the Rivella brand range includes the right soft drink for everyone, and quite deliberately addresses a particularly wide target group. Monika Christener, Corporate Communications Manager, says, "With our Rivella family, we accompany consumers from childhood to old age, as we have "the right color" for every life situation and every stage of life." The most successful "Rivella color" continues to be Red where it all began. The order is then Rivella Blau followed by Rivella Grün. Number Two soft drinks brand in Switzerland After Coca-Cola, Rivella is the clear Number Two soft drinks brand in Switzerland. Here, approximately 78 million liters of Rivella brand beverages are consumed each year. On average, every Swiss therefore drinks about 10 liters of Rivella per year, and at the same time internalizes a Rivella mission which says "Our beverages represent refreshing moments, active zest for life and Swiss originality - day by day." Michel – the fruity alternative Although Rivella is the original and biggest-selling of Rivella AG's products, it is not the only one. As well as the Rivella brand, Rivella AG also sells the Michel brand, likewise with great success. This brand was taken over in 1983 and has the motto "pure fruit enjoyment". In the Swiss restaurant trade, Michel holds the leading position amongst fruit juices, nectars and mixed fruit drinks. As well as classical fruit juices and nectars, which are available in a total of 11 different flavors such as orange, pear, pineapple, apricot, peach etc, Michel also includes what are known as functionals, which include Bodyguard, Beauty Colada, Cranberry and Take it Easy. The Rivella AG range is also supplemented by the Passaia passion fruit drink and the Grapillon grape nectar. Holland as the main export market All in all, Rivella AG's annual beverage production amounts to approximately 105 million liters. Of this, about 80% remains within Switzerland and 20% is exported. The main export market continues to be the Netherlands. Rivella has had a major presence here since 1957. An interesting fact is that Rivella Blau is the most popular in the Netherlands. This is probably as a result of the Netherlands being the original market for Rivella Blau, as the light beverage was marketed here in 1958 and therefore a full year before being introduced in Switzerland. Germany very much in focus The company also exports to France, Luxembourg, Austria and Germany. Particular focus is currently directed towards its neighbor, Germany. Here, Rivella, as an extremely popular niche product in the soft drinks market, generates double-digit percentage growth rates year on year, and is positioned particularly successfully as a Swiss Original which, according to the company philosophy, is "different from the rest". 80% of Rivella sales relate to PET bottles As at the start of the Rivella story, the Rivella brand is today still bottled in the 0.33-liter brown glass bottle. This is used mainly in restaurants. In the meantime, the retail market is focusing particularly on Rivella in PET bottles. Here, the brand is available in brown-tinted 0.33-liter, 0.5-liter, 1.0-liter, 1.25-liter and 1.5-liter PET bottles. Currently, about 80% of all Rivella sales are made with PET bottles. With such a high demand for the PET container, it is no wonder that the PET filling and packaging line, which is designed just for the Rivella product, is a particularly important line for the company. "Of our total of four filling and packaging lines, two are intended for filling and packaging our beverages in glass bottles, a third and fourth are responsible for filling and packaging non-carbonated and carbonated products in PET bottles", says Wymann. Innopack Kisters SP impresses with reliability... In the "Rivella PET line", an Innopack Kisters SP dating from the year 2000 packages the filled PET bottles in shrink packs. This Innopack Kisters SP has been working highly reliably for years. As KHS' suppliers had given notice that the supply of spare parts for the machine control and drive equipment for all Innopack Kisters packaging machines made before 2000/2001 was no longer guaranteed, the following decision now had to be made: to carry out a KHS update for the machine control and drive equipment in order to ensure a supply of spare parts for the Innopack Kisters SP for the next 10 years, or to invest in a new machine. ...and therefore enables a quick decision to be made in favor of the KHS update As Wymann says, "Thanks to regular maintenance, our packaging machine was in technically perfect condition, and we therefore made the decision to invest in an update very quickly." The package: new control system, new drives and equipment for the film cutter with separate servo drive As part of the conversion, the existing controller was replaced by a new controller (Siemens S7). As this new controller is only suitable for digital drive equipment, the incorporation of the new controller had to be accompanied by replacement of the previous analog drives with digital drives. Also included in the "conversion package" was the provision of the film cutter with a separate servo drive which operates independently from the main drive. The standard practice to date had been to drive the film cutter from the main motor via a coupling. The main advantage of converting to a servo-motor-driven film cutter is more accurate cutting and lower wear of the film cutter. Moreover, as under the new regime the film system runs independently, it is now also possible to thread and synchronize the film without running the machine. "Following the conversion, we can confirm that the advantage of better film cutting quality is exactly as KHS said it would be", says Wymann. "All in all, our packaging machine now runs even more accurately and reliably. This improves the production efficiency of the whole line." The stated advantages are also, among other things, thanks to the complete replacement of the switchboard associated with the update to digital servo equipment and the replacement of the operator panel. The new operator panel provides the same convenience with regard to machine operation, setup and maintenance that the operator panels on new machines have. Among other things, benefits relate to different language versions, different help texts, up to 70 integratable formats and a graphical display of the machine. "As good as a new machine" "After the upgrade, we have the impression that we generate exactly the same advantages with our existing Innopack Kisters SP that we would have done with a new machine", says Wymann. "And with considerably less investment." In addition, the upgrade involved comparatively less time and additional cost. Laborious removal of the old machine and installation of the new machine were unnecessary here, as was a clarification of the interfaces. What is more, the operators are still able to work with "their" proven machine. "The machine operators are delighted that they can continue to work with "their" extremely reliable shrink packer", says Wymann. "On the other hand, they are extraordinarily appreciative of the quality increase that the upgrade has brought." More than 100 other companies are doing the same as Rivella Incidentally, Rivella AG is in good company with the upgrade of its Innopack Kisters SP. In the meantime, more than 100 companies worldwide have decided to convert established Innopack Kisters packaging machines. As Wymann says, "If you are satisfied with an older machine and know that in all likelihood it will still be capable of producing for a long time provided that spare parts are available, in my opinion there is only one reason to invest in a new machine, and that is that the existing machine is no longer up-to-date." KHS consulting service identifies extensive possibilities As is usual with KHS, along with advice relating to the control and drive equipment, KHS provided Rivella with further individual advice on additional conceivable advantageous upgrades. For example, among other things, KHS provided Rivella with expertise on the positive aspects of a conversion to a gas-operated eco shrink tunnel. "As a result of this information from KHS, we are currently considering whether to convert our shrink tunnel from electric heating to gas heating at the next stage", says Wymann. "As an environmentally conscious company, on the one hand we see the benefit of even more environmentally friendly production, and of course, on the other, the advantage of further cost reduction." Eco shrink tunnel provides up to 50% energy cost saving Using a gas heater as the heart of the shrink tunnel can cut energy costs by up to 50% compared with the conventional electric heater. For companies, which aspire to a high level of environmental awareness, there is another positive aspect of the eco shrink tunnel which is that the environment benefits from an up to 60-percent reduction in CO2 emissions. The reason for this is that gas is converted directly into heat. In the case of electric heating, the CO2 emissions are always considerably greater as a result of the multiple energy conversion for the generation of electricity. Reliability wins out Wyman says, "I can only emphasize time and time again that, in recent decades, KHS equipment has actively contributed to Rivella's success through extremely reliable technical solutions. In this regard, we also value the proximity to the KHS branch in Switzerland and the knowledge of the process specialists at KHS headquarters." Aiming for growth at home and abroad Rivella also intends to grow in the future. At home as well as abroad, and wherever the brand appears, with the claim of being "different from all the rest". On the occasion of the company's 60th anniversary, Alexander Barth, President of the Rivella Group and son of the company founder, comments on the question of what he would like for Rivella in the next 60 years as follows: "That people in two or three more countries are just as enthusiastic about Rivella as in Switzerland. And that Rivella continues to provide so much zest for life." The chances of this are good. Not least because Rivella cultivates that which is authentically Swiss and is seen as a Swiss national beverage even abroad. Furthermore, in the meantime, Rivella has officially become part of the culinary heritage of Switzerland.
