Contract packaging

Bottling

We have the facilities at our Unicorn Packaging Centre (UPC) to receive beer ‘ready to bottle’ or straight from fermentation vessel for cold conditioning, processing, filtration and carbonation. Our tanks vary in size, holding from 50 barrels to 340 barrels. Our minimum bottling run size is 50 barrels. In addition to handling beer and cider for bottling we mix several premium soft drinks on site and all bottles are pasteurised. We recently invested £750,000 in a state-of-the-art pasteurizer which offers our customers product stability.

Flexibility in packaging means we are able to accommodate over 20+ different glass bottles, plus a wide range of labelling options. The majority of bottles we fill are 500ml and 330ml, although other sizes are available between 250ml and 750ml. Our customers benefit from our adaptability – we already fill and label several bespoke bottles to create unique packaging solutions.

Our state-of-the-art bottling line features: 

• We pack bottles into cardboard trays and shrink-wrap, boxes and multipack sleeves.
• A range of coloured crowns / screw caps.
• Our 3 labelling machines allow a selection of labelling options.
• We pack for around 60 contract customers producing more than 400 SKUs.

PLUS…

We produce and package well-known and growing soft drinks brands.

Bulk beer collection service within UK mainland.

Robinsons road tanker fleet, including split compartment tankers, enables us to transport 50, 60, 120, and 180 barrels.

We work with many prominent and established breweries and retailers, as well as new start-ups, microbreweries and brand owners.

We package bright cider as well as cloudy.

Kegging

A kegging line is available for beers and ciders. Beers and ciders can be received ready to keg, or we can accept rough beer for cold conditioning and processing. We can carbonate or nitrogenate for smooth beers.

Petainer filling service

We can fill beer and cider into 20 litre and 30 litre Petainers with all packaging materials being provided as part of the service.

Cask racking

We have one of the most modern and sophisticated cask racking (filling) lines in the UK. It is almost fully automated and consistently produces cask beer to the highest possible standards. Manual handling of full casks has been eliminated. Casks pass through two washing machines before filling. Filled casks are then stored in temperature-controlled conditions.

First class facility

We provide a first-class packaging facility which caters not only for the larger volume products but especially for ‘niche’ products that require very close attention and care.

Based at Stockport, some seven miles South of Manchester, we are at the heart of Britain’s motorway system. Both brewery and packaging plants are within 1/2 mile of the motorway (M60, Manchester orbital), giving easy access to trunk motorway networks across the North, South, East and West.