The colors of money - 1993 Capital Equipment and Supplies Survey - includes listing of firms that participated in survey - Cover Story

Dairy Foods, May, 1993 by Paul Rogers

Others like Stonyfield Farm and Elgin Dairy Foods are focusing on smaller projects.

"We're better at controlling things in the plant," says Ken Gignac, Elgin president. "We've done quite a bit to cut back on water use," including employee education, water reuse systems and automatic hose turn-offs. Surcharge rates have been increasing year after year, and company expenses with them. "The more we've been able to conserve, the more we've been able to save," Gignac says.

In what Stonyfield calls a "one-time" event, the dairy will be investing in a heat recovery system that will reduce its waste stream. Much more aggressive waste and effluent reduction regulations are inevitable, says Gary Hirschberg, president.

Packaging gets the blues

The one disturbing area of the DFISA/Dairy Foods Capital Equipment and Supplies Survey involves packaging equipment. A significant decrease can be seen in the area of fluid filling. Spending on paper, plastic and aseptic fillers is down more than 50 percent on each type of filler, for a total of more than $17 million.

The reasons for the decrease vary. Tom Rose, vice president, production, Dean Foods Co., voiced one of the more common and simpler beliefs: Filler sales are low because dairies have more pressing needs, have aggressively spent in previous years, have no fillers that need replacement or need no additional capacity.

"|Dean's~ filler expenditures are down but not intentionally," he says. Basically, for one reason or another, more dairies in 1993 are finding their filling systems adequate. By chance, they are doing it in the same year.

While others contacted for this story echo Rose's explanation, some cited excess filling capacity, a greater number of leased fillers and little new development in filling systems as the reasons.

"There's nothing particularly exciting from a packaging standpoint from the packaging suppliers," says Gary Imm, chief executive officer of Clover Stornetta Farms. "There is no generational change in packaging as there was recently |with enclosed sanitary fillers~."

Another fluid bottler suggests similar sanitary filling systems for plastic bottles might be just the thing to spur the market.

Seeing red over NLEA

For the second year in a row, labeling equipment has topped the DFISA/Dairy Foods survey in the packaging category. Sixty-seven companies will be purchasing labeling equipment in 1993; 49 purchased labeling equipment in 1992. The reason is obvious: the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act. Every label will present a greater amount of information than in the past. Sixteen percent of the companies surveyed feel new labelers will be needed to handle the changeover, and that isn't counting companies like Purity Dairies, who still have not made a definite commitment to a system.

"We almost surely will have to put on new labels and that will add to the budget," says Bill Ezell, president. "But right now, we're up in the air as to how we're going to accomplish compliance. Will we need one label or two?"