Case histories

19/04/2017

ACEITERA MARTINEZ: COMPLETE BOTTLING LINE FOR EDIBLE OIL

Argentinian edible oil bottling company Aceitera Martinez has doubled up on SIPA filling lines with the addition of its second acquisition in two years, based on an SFR 8 rotary stretch-blow molder and Flextronic W 50/10 high-precision weight filler. This time, the line came as a turnkey package, complete with a 15-head labelling unit, a SIPA Silent case packer, a PTF 1 palletizer, and a stretch wrapper.


The package also included an XFORM 150 system for production of PET preforms on-site. The equipment is running at Aceitera Martinez’s plant in the San Jerónimo department of Santa Fe province. Weight filling technology is considered the most reliable, clean and efficient system for filling bottles with edible oil. It is particularly appreciated for the fact that it avoids overfills: by measuring the weight directly in the container, it takes into account the changes in the tare as well as in the temperature or nature of the oil, and adapts to intrinsic changes of the product during the production cycle. The Flextronic W is highly suited to lightweight bottles, as it handles them only by the neck. It also comes with the option of pressurizing the bottles with nitrogen in order to prevent the oil inside from oxidizing and losing its flavor. “Aceitera Martinez was very happy with the first line we installed, so it quickly chose the second one,” says the plant manager. “The customer likes our product, and it also likes our collaborative approach to doing business.” Aceitera Martínez is the exclusive bottler in Argentina for vegetable oils produced by Bunge Limited, the multinational agribusiness and foods group. With a bottling capacity of 12,000 bottles per hour, it supplies the home market and exports to neighboring countries in South and Central America, as well as South Africa. This April, Aceitera Martinez became a wholly-owned part of Bunge Limited. Bunge’s Argentinian subsidiary has been collaborating with Aceitera Martinez for several years.


The Aceitera Martinez bottling operations are very close to Bunge Argentina’s vegetable oil refining center in Rosario. From there, it markets and sells vegetable oils branded Alsamar and Siglo de Oro. Bunge, which has operations around the world, was itself founded in Argentina, but is now headquartered in the USA. It was already a SIPA customer, with equipment running at one of its operations in Brazil.