Keeping beer moving from brewery to bottle shop

Picking up a case of your favourite Lion beer, have you ever wondered how it gets from the brewery to the shelf? As well as brewing and packaging, there’s one more important step – getting it onto pallets ready for dispatch.

Palletisers are the final link between brewery and distribution; mesmerising to watch as they load packs and cartons of bottles and cans onto pallets in an effortless, uninterrupted process. Maintaining this seamless operation was a challenge we faced when installing five new KHS robotic palletisers into the bottling and canning lines at Lion Toohey’s Lidcombe Brewery.

Beca and Lion formed an integrated team to develop the business case, then worked closely with operations to create a staged programme, minimising disruption and risk. The delivery of the project used best practice project management, risk management, scheduling and budget management practices to deliver a successful outcome.

Despite the challenges of operating within a high-risk production environment and with the construction area sometimes being just one metre away from operators, our focus on safety and careful planning was always paramount.

Our understanding of the potential risks when interfacing with operations, our detailed knowledge of the brewery and its processes, and our experience in construction staging meant the new equipment was up and running well before the peak season; the shelves in the bottle shops remained fully stocked and ready for summer.