Alliance completes $16m automation investment at Lorneville

Friday, 2 August 2024

Alliance Group has finished installing and commissioning a $16 million automated cold storage system at its Lorneville plant, near Invercargill.

Using shuttle vehicles, the system sorts boxes of frozen products and stacks them on pallets, which can be moved around, reducing the need for someone to physically lift and carry them.

Those previously employed in the department have been redeployed to other departments.

Alliance announced a board decision in 2021 that Lorneville would be the first of its plants to install the technology, designed by Dunedin company Scott Technology.

It took some time to get the project started.

Alliance General manager of processing and safety Wayne Shaw said the new technology was better for the health and safety of employees, while also allowing the plant to operate more efficiently.

“Previously, more than 60 people were required to work in the warehousing operation during peak processing, manually handling boxes of fresh product, each weighing around 22kg,” he said.

“That lifting poses a risk of muscular skeletal injury to our people.”

The new stacking system also minimised product damage and safety risks, while reducing the need for folklifts, Shaw said.

The investment reflected Alliance’s commitment to the Lorneville site and the Southland region, he said.

“We have been continually investing in Lorneville over the past five years,. including the opening of a new venison plant and the installation of primal cutters for processing.”

Alliance announced a board decision in 2021 that Lorneville would be the first of its plants to install the technology, designed by Dunedin company Scott Technology.

It replaced the plant’s 30-year-old frozen product warehouse operation and is being bedded in