Food and Beverage

Food & Beverage Producers and OEMs Invest in Innovative Packaging Equipment and Plant Design

The Hope Group currently counts six of the top 10 food and beverage producers in the country as its customer: Nestle, Pepsico, Anheuser-Busch, General Mills, Smithfield Foods, and Coca-Cola. We provide packaging equipment manufacturers, breweries, bakeries, and dairy farms with components and systems such as:

View Food & Beverage Processing and Packaging Solutions brochure
  • Hose products & tubing that conform to FDA, PMO, USDA, 3A, and ANSI/NSF safety and sanitary standards. Tips for food and beverage packaging OEMs.
  • Fluid connectors for potable water systems. View a video on Parker’s commercial drinking water distribution system.
  • Stainless steel tubing & tube fittings
  • Pneumatic compenents such as cylinders, valves/manifolds, and air preparation (filter-regulator-lubricator)
  • Food grade air compressors and dryers, air purification/filtration products, and nitrogen generators
  • Electrical/electronic control systems for plant automation and condition monitoring
  • Seals, o-rings, and gaskets, including sanitary

Changes in Food & Beverage Packaging

Recently, the industry has trended towards cost-effective, safe, and sustainable food & beverage packaging, which is being driven by both the need to differentiate products in the supermarket aisle and the need to stay compliant with food safety requirements on the plant floor. Packaging machinery OEMs and end users are moving towards packaging food and drinks that appeal to consumers and decrease both storage space and distribution costs.

Changes that help businesses stay competitive can be met with resistance if they seem too expensive or difficult for manufacturers to implement. However, a well-designed processing facility with innovative packaging equipment can help businesses reduce packaging costs as well as frustrations on the plant foor.

Investment in Automation

In a recent study conducted by the ARC Advisory Group and reported in published reports, key automation products to help processors get control of the processes include motion control, programmable controllers, distributed control systems, process systems, field transmitters and valves, process engineering tools, and production management. The growth in the food & beverage industry investment translates directly into opportunity for The Hope Group to bring its wide range of automation and motion & control solutions to the market.

One analyst was quoted in a trade publication stating that “overall, there’s a lot more emphasis on cost justification, and often that means more throughput on the lines; it might mean de-bottlenecking a line, adding a new conveyor or some other line modification; anything to increase capacity without building new.” Plant improvement using automation techniques is a growth area for The Hope Group.

Energy Audits Increasing

In a recent survey of food & beverage producers, when asked how they were approaching energy management challenges, 60 percent of the respondents said they were taking steps toward conservation; 30 percent are conducting energy audits and others were reclaiming energy, including negotiating with providers and seeking alternative energy sources. This result comes as no surprise to The Hope Group, as it has been working closely with regional energy producers to assist its food & beverage customers with energy conservation and reclamation projects for several years. Many of its customers have benefitted from rebates provided directly by local utility companies for energy saving improvement associated with new capital equipment expenditures.

In addition, the company continues to introduce automation solutions to its food & beverage customers that will respond to their need for cost management, margin protection, and more sustainable manufacturing processes focused on energy conservation and waste reduction.