British Seed Houses has invested almost £90,000 in a new boxed lawn seed packing line at its Lincolnshire base to improve its service and help it grow new markets.

The UK’s largest privately-owned grass seed company has replaced long serving equipment with a bespoke machine which has been installed in time for packing over the winter in preparation for spring 2013.

Managing director William Gilbert said: “The investment will improve efficiency and our service to major multiples and garden centres through which we distribute domestic lawn seed. It will also give us increased capacity and enable us to target more businesses in the sector.

“Our previous machine had done its job over 20 to 25 years but it was becoming more difficult to maintain and to get spares and we needed to consider our future needs and those of our customers. The new equipment allows us to change from one carton size to another in less time than before and because it’s smaller and designed around freely available components it will also be easier to maintain.”

The 3.5 m long vertical cartoner was made by Lincolnshire company Flexi-Pak in Gainsborough, which exhibited it at the PPMA trade show, the UK’s leading processing and packing machinery show.

The machine selects pre-glued cartons and as they are moved along the conveyor they are assembled before reaching a weighing machine. The seed is dropped into the cartons, the top flaps are folded and glued and finally ejected down a roller conveyor.

Mark Leeson, director at Flexi-Pak, said: “We designed and built the machine to meet BSH’s requirements, catering for their existing carton sizes as well as allowing for slightly smaller and slightly larger cartons, and also to fit under their existing weighing machine. It has a stainless steel frame and guards to stop corrosion.”