St. Petersburg: Unimilk opens ultra-modern plant for premium dairy products

Unimilk, one of the leading Russian dairy companies, opened a new ultra-modern plant in St Petersburg to manufacture premium dairy products. At its new plant, opened in September, the company has opted exclusively for filling machines from SIG Combibloc to aseptically fill its dairy products into carton packs. In addition to a CFA 712 filling machine for combiblocSmall and combifitSmall, the company has a CFA 312 for combiblocSlimline in operation in St. Petersburg. Unimilk is the first company in Russia to do so. Both machines have an output of 12,000 carton packs per hour.

Unimilk is a dynamic Russian company which has emerged in the past few years primarily due to its ambitious drive to innovate and the launch of a range of new products. The company was founded in 2002 and since 2004 has focused on expanding its milk and dairy products divisions. This branch of the company now covers 31 dairy-processing plants in Russia and another two in the Ukraine. In 2007, the company’s sales totalled about 950 million Euro.

The agreement between Unimilk and SIG Combibloc signed in 2007 allowed to launch Shadrinskoe-brand condensed milk in combifitSmall 300 ml with the screw cap combiSmart. Condensed milk in a carton pack was a complete novelty in Russia. Pavel Isaev, Corporate Communications Director at Unimilk, says: “Before this product was launched, condensed milk was only available in cans in Russia. Condensed milk in a recloseable carton pack was something completely new here. The market success of this product has convinced us to introduce other products in carton packs”. Besides, Prostokvashino (10 and 20 per cent fat content) and Petmol (11, 22 and 33 per cent fat content) branded UHT coffee cream, Tema-brand UHT infant milk (3.2 per cent fat content) and a variety of UHT milk and cream products under the Petmol brand are now also available in SIG Combibloc carton packs. Pavel Isaev: “By offering these products, we are not only targeting domestic users, we are serving the HoReCa distribution channels. The flexibility of the filling technology from SIG Combibloc allows us to meet the needs of all target groups. For instance, we offer the Prostokvashino products in 200 and 350 ml carton packs, which allows the consumer to choose the right amount for his or her needs”. With the filling machines from SIG Combibloc, it takes just a few minutes to change to different filling volumes for all formats with a few simple adjustments to the filling machine settings. There is no need to re-sterilise the machine or change parts of the machines. Quick volume change ensures optimal use of machine capacity and keeps machine downtimes to a minimum.