South Yorkshire Times, December 28
Crisper Packaging.
New machine for Conisbrough Factory.
Production at the Sheffield Road factory of the Conisbrough Crisp Company will be stepped up during the next few weeks when a brand-new type of packaging machine is introduced.
The machine, which has already arrived at the works and is now awaiting installation, is American design but British made. Costing £7000 it represents a completely new technique for the company.
Older types of machine had to be fed with ready-made bags for the packaging process, but the new machine will manufacture its own bags from rolls of printed paper, fill them with crisps to the correct weight and seal them, all in one operation at the rate of about 75 packets a minute, as opposed to 20 with the older type.
The device was introduced into this country a matter of weeks ago, Mr C.M. Wright, company director and secretary, told the “South Yorkshire Times,” The company had decided to introduce a machine partly to meet increased demand, and partly to keep abreast of the latest developments in the industry.
Study Expansion.
When the new machine came into operation sometime after Christmas, he said, there would be three types working at the plant, including two other American machines which the company, bought two or three years ago. Now they plan to replace all the old machines, but although the new machine needs fewer hands to operate it, this is not likely to affect the 50 or 60 girls who work there.
“We don’t expect it to affect our labour force as we are increasing in size all the time.” said Mr Wright. “The change over to the new machine will be a gradual process and we have plans to introduce another one early in the New Year.”
One interesting aspect of the growth of the crisp industry is the increasing popularity of flavoured crisps, which, Mr Wright estimates, now account for half of the countries crisp output.