GA Pet Food Partners happy with high speed doors from Klimate

When Roger Bracewell purchased his tractor driven extruder in 1992 to turn the wheat grown on his family’s farm into a simple dog food, little could he have imagined that, 25 years later it would employ 350 people over two sites, and export their goods throughout Europe and beyond.

As the business grew over the years, technology has improved, and procedures have changed. There was the need to install high speed doors on some of the exterior openings to the production facility to help prevent ingress of pests as well as controlling the ambient temperature of the facility. The company selected a door that, at the time they believed would be perfect for them, from a company that they could rely on. Unfortunately, previously this was not the case as they were being let down by the response times they were receiving, as well as the ongoing maintenance costs of the doors.

The decision was made to trial a door from Klimate, which is a trading division of BID Group. The Senior Sales Engineer – Chris Halsall, attended site to assess the opening and advise on which door configuration would be best as well as the most suitable method of actuation. A Klimate high speed door was specified and installed in April 2015.

This new door proved to be a much better solution than the previously purchased doors and as such in the following seven months a further eight doors were specified, ordered and installed taking the total number of Klimate doors on site to nine with an additional one outstanding.

Andy Kettle, Joint Managing Director; “The doors from Klimate have been a cost effective solution for us. Having trialled one door at the start of the year we were all impressed with the doors and saw no reason why we shouldn’t extend their use throughout the site. The high speed doors are now being used, not only to replace existing, inefficient high speed doors but also in place of PVC strip curtains which were a health & safety hazard when the wind got up and required a member of staff to constantly go around replacing damaged sections”.

“Even though we produce pet food we are still governed by the same regulations that concern food which is produced for human consumption and as such has to be regularly audited. In the most recent food safety audit in the summer they actually commended us on our use of improved door technology”

GA’s investment in innovation has allowed them to experience significant growth both at home and abroad by supplying great products as they specialise in only premium quality pet foods. In 2014 they opened a new Microbiological laboratory that provides zero tolerance on Salmonella, Ecoli and Campylobacter, and by using Freshtrusion™ it allows for the client to specify the fresh meat content in their ultra premium range of foods.

So what next for GA? Well, already exporting to over 40 countries around the world is a great stepping stone for future growth overseas. An established office in Poland is set to be joined with another in Germany later this year and trade in the Far East is becoming easier with the increase in trade missions. Whatever the future holds one thing is for sure; GA Pet Food Partners look set to grow by offering the highest levels of service and quality to their customers from their facility in the North-West of England.

www.klimate.co.uk