around the globe

01/2014

TELEMARK takes a turn to SIPA for its new CSD business

What does the word Telemark conjure up for you? Depending on your age or persuasion, it could mean downhill skiing, taking turns on one knee—a technique devised by Sondre Norheim, born in the Telemark region of Norway back in 1825. Or maybe you think of that 1960s film, based on a true story, with famous American and British actors pretending to be Norwegians who sabotage a heavy water facility to save the planet from nuclear destruction: “Heroes of Telemark.”

Well, some of the good people of Telemark in the water business have taken a new turn, and maybe there’s something rather heroic about this too. Telemark Kildevann, a well-known bottler of water that wells up in Fyresdal in the south of Norway, has set up a second operation, to make carbonated soft drinks 300 km away, in Aurskog ,close to Oslo, the capital of Norway.
Telemark has moved into a plant that not so long ago was the scene of a dream to make the Th!nk all-electric city car. That dream did not come true, sad to say, but Telemark is very bubbly about the prospects for its new venture. And so is SIPA.
Last year, SIPA installed a Sincrobloc 12-108-10 filling unit at Telemark for bottling the CSDs. The equipment handles bottles between 500 and 1500 mL, running at 24,000 bottles per hour. This unit has 12 cavities and 108 valves, and incorporates SIPA’s Isotronic isobaric volumetric filling monobloc.

“Telemark was attracted by our professional and creative approach, together with our willingness and ability to satisfy the need to enter production with a very tight schedule,” says Stefano Bonanni at SIPA. “We needed to integrate with other providers in the management of a complex job. It was a real challenge, which we demonstrated we were able to master.”
So now Telemark Kildevann now enjoys the advantage and flexibility of state-of-the-art filling and packaging equipment for its new drinks. In addition to its own brands, it produces private label waters, soft drinks and sports drinks to some of the largest grocery-chains in Scandinavia. It also packs Bon Aqua Silver still, sparkling and flavoured water for the Norwegian market, under contract for The Coca Cola Company.

Telemark Kildevann chairman Bjorn Bunæs says the new operation will strengthen the company’s cooperation with key customers, and is enabling it to adapt to a market that is rapidly changing.