In a further boost to product quality and consistency, Amorim is set to consolidate production of its Twin Top® and champagne stoppers in two new ‘super’ plants.

The move, which will expand production capacity for technical corks and champagne stoppers by almost 400 million units a year, follows an investment of 12 million euros in upgraded plant, equipment and skills training.

Equipar, a new technical cork facility capable of producing 3.5 million corks a day, will focus on Amorim’s highly successful Twin Top® closure.

The largest cork plant in the world, Equipar covers 200,000 square metres at Coruche in the south of Portugal. It will boost Amorim’s annual technical cork production capacity from 1 billion to 1.2 billion units.

Champagne stopper production will be consolidated at an updated facility in the north, to be known as Amorim Champagne, capable of producing 450 million closures a year.  This represents a massive 70 per cent increase in supply of the popular SPARK® and ChampCork® brands to meet continuing strong demand for Amorim product.

“This is an investment in our future and maintains the momentum of innovation and performance improvement Amorim has pursued over the last 10 years,” said Amorim & Irmãos chief executive officer Victor Ribeiro.

“By consolidating production in a single specialist facility we can achieve even higher standards of product consistency and performance. The economies of scale will help keep costs down and achieve maximum productivity from our assets.”

Mr Ribeiro said the plants would incorporate modern processing technologies developed by Amorim in recent years, including the CONVEX and INOS washing systems and the ROSA TCA-extraction process.  Improved plant layout and process controls will increase productivity, quality and reliability.

The facilities have also been designed with an eye to the future to allow for a smooth introduction of new technologies Amorim has in the pipeline.

The restructuring began in November 2005 and has seen the consolidation of technical cork and champagne stopper facilities from five plants to two.  The transition will be completed in July.  

Each plant will be a fully integrated specialist facility, taking production from raw material to finished product within a tightly controlled environment.

Equipar, for example, is right next door to Amorim’s state-of-the-art Coruche processing plant and a new cork granulating facility that will open in July. Processed raw materials will be transferred via an internal pipeline directly to the Twin Top® assembly line.

“What we have established are huge quality control perimeters. It’s a major step forward and, given the scale of our operations, again sets Amorim apart from our competitors,” said Ribeiro.

To support the new plants, Amorim has invested heavily in training its personnel.

“At Amorim Champagne we have created a centre of excellence in terms of our champagne closure knowledge. We now have the best team and the most capable managers concentrated under one roof. That also applies to our new Equipar facility for Twin Top®,” said Ribeiro.

“In recent years we have introduced a range of processing and quality control improvements.