Midbrook, Inc. makes gains with CapSnap line of bottling equipment

Midbrook, Inc. is making gains through the manufacturing and licensing rights to CapSnap line of HOD bottling equipment. In August of 2004, Portola Packaging sold the manufacturing and licensing rights to Midbrook, Inc., an industrial custom machine and fabrication house located west of Detroit, Michigan USA. Along with this sale came the marketing, engineering, sales, service, and parts business for all of the legacy systems around the world.

“We wanted to get off on the right foot in the industry”, says Don Reeder, GM of CapSnap for Midbrook, “so we took a calculated, slow pace in getting started. First we wanted to shore up the representation of the equipment and the partnerships that CapSnap had forged. Next, we wanted to build a few systems to get the feel for the bottled water business, improve the equipment, and look to the future. We are now in stage three of our plan which is to promote the line.”

Midbrook has its roots firmly planted in the automotive industry. They have been manufacturing part washing systems and material handling equipment for over 30 years and have well over 1,000 systems worldwide. They are ISO9001:2000 certified along with continuing the NSF component certification that the CapSnap line has carried for many years.

“CapSnap has become synonymous with quality and innovation in the 5-gallon industry. Midbrook will carry this tradition on and bring a continuous improvement process with advancements in the equipment and the technology behind it,” Reeder states. With an engineering partner in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Midbrook is poised to bring its high quality CapSnap equipment to the forefront in the Latin American, Asian, and Middle Eastern markets as well. “Brazil gives us engineering options to meet the time constraints that many of our customers have.”

The cost of labor and delivery continues to erode profits for many bottlers. Plant efficiencies must be optimized while keeping labor burden in check. Advancements in material handling, automation, palletizing, robotics, and racking will bring these efficiencies to the bottler. Standardization of bottles, racks and closures will help bottlers to take better advantage of this technology. Innovations in sensing, actuation and other controls bring more efficiency to the equation. Mating these controls to a Human/Machine Interface with adjustability will give the operator greater command and effectiveness.

Quality assurance and inspection are also areas where the bottler can benefit from technological advancements. The processes of leak detection, contaminant detection, photometric inspection, and cleaning chemistry all lend themselves to bringing a greater sense of quality and security of the product to the marketplace. Ozone and other sanitizing agents will also continue to grow in scope of use.

Midbrook kept many of the key relationships that CapSnap had in place when they bought it. One crucial partnership is with CapSnap Europe Packaging, GmbH (CSE) in Austria. CSE is the exclusive representative of the CapSnap equipment line in greater Europe.