Patak's has more than 300 employees at their Leigh, Lancashire, UK factory, and their products are distributed internationally to more than 40 countries. The Leigh factory  was a significant investment in state of the art food processing facilities which, at 164.00 sq ft. is believed to be the largest Indian food factory in the world. The factory's output is impressive: using 2,700 tonnes of spices from around the world, together with other ingredients, they produce over 1 million snacks, over 1.5 million ready meals and 30 million jars of safe a year. To achieve this they are currently working 24 hours for 5 days a week.

Customer requirements

There was a need to improve the transfer of goods from storage to the processing area.

Spiroflow solutions

A 'Spiroflow' Aero-Mechanical Conveyor was the natural choice for Patak's Foods Ltd when choosing a conveyor for the upgrade and expansion of their ingredients handling systems. As Projects Manager, Ray Brown, confirms. "We did out homework and concluded that an Aero-Mechanical Conveyor was what we needed. We talked to several suppliers and choose Spiroflow because they offered the best deal. We are well satisfied with the performance of the equipment and the support we got from Spiroflow".

The 3 metre long "Spiroflow" Aero-Mechanical Conveyor is used to transfer a host of ingredients from the warehouse, through a wall and into wheeled bins in the cookhouse. These ingredients are many and varied, ranging from coconut milk powder to kibbled onions. They are manually emptied from bags-in-boxes. Typically, well over a hundred bags of ingredients are emptied into the conveyor every day.

When asked why they selected an Aero-Mechanical Conveyor, Ray Brown advises that the needed a cost effective conveyor capable of self-emptying - to ensure that everything that is introduced into the inlet comes out at the other end - an essential attribute when making up accurate batches of ingredients to guarantee the quality and flavours for which Patak's are renowned.

The "Spiroflow" Aero-Mechanical Conveyor supplied to Patak's is of stainless steel construction and is complete with interlocked quick-release hatches to the sprocket housings. These facilities easy cleaning. The conveyor has an integral feed hopper with vibrating air pad to promote the flow of ingredients into the conveyor. The top of the hopper has a shelf and mesh grill to enable bags of material to be opened and tipped with ease.