Laleham Health & Beauty is a highly respected contract manufacturer of health and beauty products, supporting globally recognised brands from its two large UK production facilities in Hampshire and Lancashire. With more than 40 years’ experience in the cosmetics and personal care sector, Laleham is known for its technical expertise, quality standards and production reliability.
Laleham has been a customer of the Adelphi Group of Companies since 2007, initially purchasing a single Response Benchtop Filler from Adelphi Manufacturing. The machine proved so effective that Laleham now operates eight Response fillers, and the long-standing relationship between the two companies has continued to strengthen.
When Laleham later encountered significant production challenges with a difficult product range, sister company Adelphi Masterfil offered the opportunity to trial its innovative new System F inline filling machine.
The Challenge: Filling Highly Viscous and Abrasive Scrubs
Laleham manufactures for a premium global cosmetics brand, producing a wide range of products including:
- Creams
- Gels
- Salt-based scrubs
- Sugar-based scrubs
These products are typically filled into jars and pots ranging from 50ml to 350ml.
While creams and gels could be filled without issue, Laleham experienced severe difficulties filling the highly viscous, abrasive scrubs. The combination of high viscosity and friction-enhancing particulates caused existing automatic fillers to overload their servos unless run at speeds far below production requirements.
Even at reduced speeds, gradual particulate build-up caused machines to seize entirely. The only solution proposed by the original equipment manufacturer was a costly bespoke modification, with no guarantee of success.
Although Laleham’s Response benchtop fillers handled these products effectively, semi-automatic filling could not deliver the output required to meet increasing order volumes. As a result, every fill of these scrub products was losing money, making production increasingly unsustainable.
A new solution was essential.
The Solution: Trialling the System F Inline Filler
At Interpack 2014, Laleham representatives Jason Eggbeer and Paul Marr visited Adelphi’s stand to discuss their challenges. Adelphi Masterfil happened to be exhibiting an early prototype of the System F filler, and discussions quickly revealed a mutually beneficial opportunity.
Adelphi Masterfil required a real-world testing partner for System F, and Laleham’s demanding production environment — running three shifts per day, five days per week — represented the ultimate stress test for the machine’s design limits.
System F had been developed from the ground up as an extremely hygienic, flexible inline filling machine, capable of accurately dosing:
- Low-viscosity liquids
- High-viscosity products
- Products containing large particulates
Available as either a flowmeter or volumetric filler with up to 16 filling heads, Laleham selected:
- Volumetric dosing
- Eight filling heads
- 500ml cylinders
While installing a newly developed machine carried some risk, Laleham’s extensive industry experience — combined with their strong relationship with Adelphi — made it a calculated and worthwhile decision.
The Result: High-Speed, Reliable Production
Laleham could not tolerate unplanned downtime and required System F to run at more than twice the speed of their existing automatic fillers.
Following short-run demonstrations at Adelphi Masterfil, System F was installed at Laleham’s Hampshire site. As expected with any newly developed machine, some early adjustments were required, which were identified and resolved over the following weeks as part of the planned development process.
Despite initial scepticism, System F quickly proved itself in real-world production. It now runs reliably at 80 units per minute (330ml volume) — to the extent that the packaging line has become the bottleneck.
Faster Changeovers and Greater Control
Jason Eggbeer highlights the operational benefits: “Compared to the automatic filler we were using, the setup is so quick and easy. With two sets of wetted parts we can comfortably perform product changeovers in less than 20 minutes, and container changeovers in less than 10.”
System F also offers independent, near-infinite control over each element of the fill cycle, allowing recipes to be fine-tuned for optimal performance.
“Our existing fillers can match System F on water-based products, but on the scrubs they just cannot cope with the viscosities. Frankly, I want as much flexibility as possible in the machinery that we run.”
Modifying existing fillers would have been both expensive and risky, with no guarantee of success.
Scalability and Long-Term Value
Jason also praises System F’s scalability:
“I am very taken with the ability to easily add extra filling heads should we need increased output in the future. Combined with the option to add a second conveyor, this should ensure that System F can continue to meet our increasing output targets without the need for investment in another filling line.”
Paul Marr adds:
“Most importantly, System F gives us the ability to keep up with demand. It is an extremely advanced multi-purpose filler that I know we are not using to its full potential.”
He also notes the machine’s strong value proposition:
“For what the machine can offer in comparison to what is available in the marketplace, the price is very reasonable.”
Beyond performance, the machine’s modern design also supports customer confidence:
“When showing existing or potential customers around our production facilities, it certainly helps to have machines that clearly demonstrate our willingness to invest in modern and well engineered equipment.”
A Proven Investment
Following the successful trial period, Laleham Health & Beauty purchased the System F filler, recognising it as a critical asset to their production capability. They have since expressed interest in further System F machines as their output continues to grow.
