2 million were delivered at the “Alitas” factory. investment results of EUR

The pride of the Alytus region’s industry – the “Alitas” factory – is entering a new stage. The just-completed factory robotics project was unveiled to the public and city leaders on Tuesday, marking a new level of progress for Alitas. The successfully implemented new product packaging transportation and automatic palletizing system meets the standards currently used by the most advanced beverage industry companies in the world. About 2 million was invested in the innovation. euros.

MV GROUP Production, which manages the factory in Alytus and consistently invests in it, hopes that in the coming years “Alita” will achieve an even greater breakthrough, representing Lithuania in foreign markets with its products.

“I am happy to be here today, together with you, to welcome one of our city’s outstanding companies – Alita.” This meeting of ours is symbolic, it seems to start a new stage in the development path of your company. 2 million of the company investing in a modern system is not only a step forward in your business, but also preparation for future challenges, when innovation will become not just a buzzword, but a necessity and real work”, said Alytus Mayor Nerijus during the presentation event of the realized investment at the “Alitas” factory Cesius.

“10 years ago, Alita started a new phase of history and together strongly shaped the MV GROUP Production family. Alytus can be proud of this spirit of an industry open to innovation. As a result, we are brave enough to experiment, learn and improve. “Alita” is already 60 years old and it is moving forward with vigor. Today, the people of the factory work in such a way that Alita will not run out of energy and ideas for at least another 60 years. This complex robotization project that has reached the finish line is a great proof of the team’s abilities, achievements and involvement, as well as an inspiration to strive for even more tomorrow”, said Algirdas Čiburys, CEO of MV GROUP Production.

You want to grow further and promote Lithuanian production

Consistent long-term investments mean that today Alita is one of the largest and most modern beverage plants in the region. The business purposefully implements advanced technologies that allow to ensure efficiency and the highest quality of production, raise the competence of employees, and improve working conditions. At the same time, the challenges relevant to business are solved: the impact of the shortage of employees is reduced, and the competitive advantage is increased.

A record-breaking investment in robotization enables the optimization and efficiency of factory operations. Last year, Alita produced 20 million liters of production, which it bottled in 44 million bottles. bottles, the product basket consisted of as many as 9 product categories. One third of the production was exported. It is estimated that since 2014 production volume increased by 70 percent. The introduced innovations create the conditions to further increase the amount of production and sales.

The scale of the project surprised the contractors

Robotization of seven production lines at the factory was entrusted to the Dutch company “Qimarox” and the specialists of the Lithuanian engineering solutions company “Inna”. Qimarox is a world-renowned company that designs and manufactures components for automated sorting, transportation and palletizing processes. And “Inna” engineers combined system components into a coherent mechanism.

The installed modern production packaging transportation and automatic palletizing system can palletize more than 100 pallets (up to 5693 packages) per hour. During the implementation of the project, the factory was equipped with automatic palletizing, automatic wrapping with film, automatic labeling equipment, an IT management system for label content and an automatic conveyor system for managing pallet flows.

“We are very pleased that MV GROUP Production has chosen our partnership for the implementation of this truly complex project at the Alitos factory. This is the first project of this scale and scope in our country. The totality of all devices forms a common system that automates various factory processes and increases production productivity. The biggest challenge was the mutual integration of all devices. The final result is a smoothly functioning, very complex system,” said Marijus Žaldarys, manager of the Inna company. He admitted that the robotics project at Alita was a big challenge for both the engineering team and the equipment manufacturer, the Dutch company Qimarox.

Work has become easier

“Inna” manager M. Žaldarys added that this type of equipment and systems are the future of production that is coming to Lithuania: “The advanced system and high-level automation installed in this factory should be the choice of every factory in order to maintain the competitiveness of its production in the market. These systems ensure and enable the maximum performance of all devices in the system, which may not have been possible before due to the human factor. By the way, the installed equipment ensures greater employee safety, work ergonomics and the added value created by one person, because people no longer need to perform routine, often repetitive tasks, they have been replaced by robots,” said M. Žaldarys. According to him, now a person only performs the work of an operator, monitors the operation of the equipment, changes the parameters, etc. That’s what we want to congratulate the customer for, becoming one of the top Lithuanian manufacturing companies that have achieved such a high level of automation,” adds the head of Inna.

Qimarox production manager Jelle Deelman said that the automatic palletizing system made by the Dutch company will allow automation of production management at the factory: “The system we developed was installed in as many as seven production lines. And this is a really big number. This is the first project of this type that we implemented in Lithuania and the first in the Baltic region”.

Employees who observe the changes in the factory and who have acquired new skills assure that the automated processes in the factory make working conditions much easier. Things that robots can easily do now, humans used to have to do with their hands. Robotization has encouraged factory colleagues to acquire new knowledge about modern systems and at the same time raise their qualifications. In addition, technological advances are helping the market to address sensitive hiring challenges that can arise from labor shortages.

Employees develop together

Alita currently has a total of 169 employees. A large team is the value of the organization, so for many years special attention has been paid to the production management system, and the principles of the LEAN methodology have been used. Every year, the company invests in team training programs, fostering internal culture, and creates initiatives that increase employee engagement.

“Alitas” employees are active participants in “MV GROUP Academy” training programs. They deepen and update their knowledge about the organization’s values, transparency policy, behavior in emergency situations, etc. every year.

The beverage production company “MV GROUP Production” manages not only “Alita”, but also “Stumbro”, “Anykščių vyno” and “Gubernija” factories. The head of MV GROUP Production, A. Čiburys, emphasized that robotization will significantly enrich the company’s experience – it will be useful for the industry of Alytus and other cities, because the group creates a unique synergy of four different Lithuanian factories, operates a common center of production equipment, laboratories and technologies, and shares knowledge a team full of various competences, knowledge and ideas. In this way, respect for the heritage of Lithuanian drinks is maintained and at the same time, centuries-old recipes are nurtured and improved.

Joint-stock company “MV GROUP Production” belongs to “MV GROUP”, one of the largest groups of companies in the Baltic States, which unites alcoholic and other beverage production, wholesale and retail trade and logistics companies in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland.