Natures Way Foods, one of the UK’s leading fresh prepared food manufacturers, has significantly enhanced its processing capability through the use of Sormac’s OptiCor lettuce coring and cutting technology.
The company specializes in the supply of high-quality, ready-to-eat produce for major retail and food-service clients, and was seeking a solution to streamline operations at one of its UK sites.
Brett Beveridge, Engineering Director at Natures Way Foods, discusses the challenges, collaboration and impact of the OptiCor installation.
What challenges or problems were you facing before using OptiCor from Sormac?
The Runcton site in Chichester is focused on food-service production – primarily mixed-leaf bagged salads. It also produces most of the shredded lettuce used by a leading quick-service restaurant chain in the UK. To support this, the team must efficiently core whole iceberg heads to ensure the tough core is fully removed.
Originally, Natures Way Foods had a team of eight performing this task: removing outer leaves, following a specific pattern to core each lettuce, and then manually inspecting every head. Production volumes reach several million iceberg heads per week, nearly doubling during peak months.
This level of manual labour not only represented a substantial annual cost but also posed ongoing challenges in sourcing and retaining a reliable workforce.
What made you choose the Sormac solution?
The OptiCor stood out for several reasons: it has a compact footprint, is easy to use and straightforward to clean. Its unique vision-based technology optimises yield for each individual iceberg head, delivering greater consistency and accuracy.
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Additional advantages included Sormac’s engineering expertise and its strong reputation across the UK and Europe.
What features of the collaboration do you find the most valuable?
Sormac enabled Natures Way to trial the machine prior to purchase, giving the operational team an opportunity to provide detailed feedback. Alongside positive conclusions, several specific requirements were identified that led to optimising the machine’s functionality.
Sormac worked closely with us to implement these improvements – helping to design and test new features that enhanced reliability and performance, ensuring we could achieve optimum throughput. After testing the first lettuce corer in production, the company has since purchased three machines.
How has it made a difference for your business?
The introduction of semi-automated systems has made the site more technologically robust and contributed to bottom-line profitability. The company now needs only two people per line instead of eight.
Would you recommend Sormac OptiCor for coring iceberg lettuce?
Yes, Sormac has delivered. The company hasn’t walked away from anything and has been very forthcoming. They are flexible, easy to do business with and offer fair terms. Most importantly, they allowed us to test and trial the machine to ensure it was fit for purpose.
Because of this, and the range of equipment they offer, Sormac is considered a reliable partner for our future investments.
