GEA acquires Slovenian machine manufacturer Vipoll
The company, which was established in 1991 employs more than 100 employees in Križevci pri Ljutomeru, Slovenia and GEA plans to expand the production facility this year.
DACH region
Its portfolio includes; pasteurizers, mixers, carbonating and capping systems, conveyor, bottle cleaning and CIP technologies covering the DACH region (Germany, Austria & Switzerland) and Slovenia.
“Vipoll specializes in glass and can filling systems with low and mid processing speeds, fitting the requirements of our customers,” said Paddy Kenna, head, Application Center Beverage, GEA.
“Breweries in particular, with their high demand for glass bottles, can benefit from the fact we now support them throughout their entire production process from brewing to bottling and storage. That is an ideal fit to our Brewery 4.0 concept.”
Kenna added glass and cans will become even more important in the future as refillable bottles are essential for a reutilization strategy and cans are a part of the recycling loops.
GEA can now also fill beverages that do not need sterile processing into glass bottles, cans and plastic containers.
The company already works in the sensitive beverage segment, with PET and HDPE bottles.
Bottle, can, PET filling
“Customers are increasingly converting from conventional batch production to continuous production, which we need to consider as a process planner,” said Kenna.
“Together with Vipoll, we can now offer flexible, multifunctional beverage lines that switch between bottle, can and PET filling.”
At drinktec 2017, Vipoll debuted its All-in-One monoblock filler (glass/PET/can), which can be adapted to various containers in a short time thanks to the flexible filling and capping head. The patent procedure is currently ongoing.
Stanko Zver, MD, Vipoll, said the company ties in well to GEA’s product range and with its large sales and service network it can expand into regions where it had little or no activity.
