By Heneage Mitchell
SPI Developments Ltd, is an industry leader in specialty adhesive and flavor application systems. Its products are found in leading cigarette factories around the world. Tobacco Asia visited SPI at its plant in Rotherham, UK, to discover what lies behind this company’s success.
SPI was founded by company chairman Paul Leverick in 2002. Leverick, with almost 40 years experience in the tobacco industry, originated the current industry standard PVA polymer adhesive side seam application method used on most modern cigarette makers. Leverick was joined in 2006 by Henry Tuck, formerly of BAT Technical Services and manager of FlexLink Systems worldwide tobacco operations. Between them, they have over 60 years in the industry, specializing in supplying innovative solutions to industry problems..
Specialization is a key attribute that has contributed to SPI’s growth.
“The core aim of all of SPI’s adhesive and flavoring application systems is to apply liquid to the product, on target to the product specification, regardless of machine operating speed,” Tuck told us. “The product manufacturer can therefore be sure that the adhesive or flavor content of the product is completely consistent.”
SPI achieves this objective by creating systems from a range of individual modules, such as high precision pumps, dedicated high-speed processors and precision liquid applicators. These modules can be configured to create different systems, suitable for fitment to a range of parent machines whilst ensuring that the product is consistently produced to a high standard.
“Other subsidiary benefits to this approach to creating such equipment include clean machine running, minimal liquid spillage, reduced waste and maintenance, improved flexibility and ease of use, and good value for money,” according to Tuck.
Critical issues
Manufacturers face critical issues when it comes to sourcing adhesive and flavor application systems and related equipment, and SPI address these concerns in several ways.
“End-users need to be sure that any application system will operate consistently, applying the correct amount of liquid to each unit product, without leaks or spillages,” Tuck told us. “In addition, the system needs to fit easily onto existing machines, be easy for operators to use and be easy to adjust whilst in operation. The way we design our equipment ensures that we meet these requirements. For example, we use magnetic couplings to connect our pumps to their drive motors and this ensures that no leakage is possible.”
Such attention to such details goes a long way to enhancing customer satisfaction.
For many customers, SPI is the preferred option because of its in-depth tobacco industry knowledge and experience.
“We possess wide experience in our chosen product range,” Tuck confirmed. “We employ great flexibility and the ability to innovate, allowing customers to have specialized equipment to produce special products and developments – and we offer good value for money.”
Proven technology and modular systems ensure that customers know that what they are getting is going to work.
“Because SPI creates its customized systems from standard, proven, modules, customers know they are getting good value, high quality equipment” Tuck said. “These modules ensure that they get accurate liquid application, leading to high product consistency, together with great production flexibility, reducing material costs through better quality. In addition, the equipment can be reconfigured and easily transferred to new machines, thus ensuring long life for the customer’s capital investment.”
SPI operates from a single base in the north of England, where all design, manufacturing and testing takes place but sells to customers globally. It has a network of distributors and agents in most major markets to serve as local contact and support points, but can provide support from the UK regardless of the ultimate market.
Asian portfolio
Asia has long been a core component of SPI’s customer portfolio, and SPI systems are found in many Asian factories.
“A significant part of SPI’s business has always come from Asia,” Tuck said, “and we believe that the proportion of revenue from this part of the world will increase. We have sold all of our product types into the region and see this continuing as the economic power and sophistication of Asian tobacco markets grow.“
With its wealth of experience in the segment, SPI can quickly determine the optimal solution for an existing production line. Its experts can assess and recommend the ideal solution for a customer rapidly and effectively, according to Tuck.
“Most of our equipment is built up from standard building blocks that can be put together in various combinations to create the systems that our customers need,” he told Tobacco Asia. “This shortens lead times and reduces cost. However, as we fit our systems to a wide range of production equipment of various types, age and configuration, we always assume that there will be some customization of our kit to ensure easy fitment to a particular machine. We have therefore created various standard checks and documentation for our customers to work through to allow us to finalize designs easily and quickly, without necessarily having to resort to expensive site visits.”
Tuck clarified that: “we can add our equipment to the vast majority of rod making machines used within the industry, having standard variations to suit the major types of cigarette and filter making machinery used in the industry. As a large proportion of our business comes from the retrofit market, we have designed the systems to be easily installed, typically taking no more than a day for physical installation. Commissioning, training and sample production normally takes an additional 1-3 days depending on the equipment and product complexity.”
It is therefore a simple process for a manufacturer to upgrade to an SPI system, according to Tuck, making the whole installation process as painless as possible. We recognize that production downtime is expensive, so it has to be minimized. This makes it easy for a prospective customer to disregard the production disruption due to the need to install equipment and therefore he can concentrate on the benefits of having SPI equipment, that is highly accurate and consistent application of liquids into product.”
SPI equipment is usable for all standard adhesives and flavor compounds. However, to ensure complete satisfaction, “we carry out material checks to ensure compatibility between certain components, such as seals, and the relevant solutions,” Tuck said. “We have several varieties of material that we can use under these circumstances to ensure no problems occur.”
SPI believes in effective communication with its clients to ensure the solutions it provides are effective and appropriate.
“We work very closely with many different customers to develop new products and processes, providing new solutions to help users convert their machines to produce new products.” Tuck confirmed. “We also work with OEM companies to integrate our products directly into new machine designs. It is important to point out that we are used to working on projects subject to confidentiality agreements,” he added.
Regulated markets
FDA control of the US Tobacco Industry has raised issues relating to product consistency and traceability, and industry observers believe that that this approach will spread to Europe and other highly regulated environments.
“Because SPI adhesive and flavor application systems ensure highly consistent and repeatable product results, there are several potential benefits, including tighter application rate standard deviation, which allows material usage to be reduced slightly,” according to Tuck. “Manufacturers can be confident that the level of application stated in ingredient listings will be accurately maintained, ensuring any relevant product regulations will be obeyed.”
Regardless of where the finished product is intended to be sold, issues of quality and consistency are always going to be paramount. Sustaining product integrity, optimizing flavor application, etc., are important considerations for any manufacturer, as SPI is well aware.
“Amongst the key characteristics of SPI products are the highly accurate application results that we can achieve, together with flexibility to the change this application rate easily,” Tuck said. “This means that a user of SPI equipment can be confident that the specified amount of adhesive or flavor required for the product will actually be applied and will be within a tight tolerance. In addition, our Hot Melt and Heated Menthol systems are designed for rapid startup from cold.”
Eliminating or reducing waste is an increasingly important concern for manufacturers, another area in which SPI can give an edge.
“Besides giving the customer confidence in his production process and product quality level, SPI systems have the potential to reduce waste and overall raw material use and cost,” Tuck clarified. “It also means that product specifications can be changed easily, reducing brand changeover time, increasing machine utilization and reducing overall production cost.”
Other considerations
As an environmentally concerned company, SPI has taken steps to ensure its footprint remains green and environmentally friendly, including ensuring that it does not contaminate the environment with waste materials.
“In particular, during the course of our normal final testing of equipment before dispatch to the end user, we prefer to test our equipment using actual flavor samples of the final product being made,” Tuck confirmed. “We therefore have procedures in place to dispose of the surplus material in an environmentally friendly manner. This procedure also ensures that no cross-contamination occurs between product samples and that they remain secure and confidential.”
Equally, SPI is committed to ensuring that all of its equipment is traceable for a number of reasons.
“SPI has two prime aims with regard to traceability,” Tuck informed us, “firstly, to ensure that all material used in our equipment is acceptable to the industry and is safe to use in relation to tobacco product manufacturing, and also to record all equipment that is dispatched from SPI so that we can support the equipment for its required working life. To that end, we keep records of all parts that are used in each of our systems, so that we can refer back to these records if there are any problems in the future. We are in the process of upgrading this record system to improve its accuracy.”
Another aspect of traceability that has not escaped SPI’s attention is the necessity to keep sophisticated equipment out of the hands of criminal elements.
“Due to our extensive experience in the tobacco industry, we have a keen sense of those companies which are legitimate and those which are not,” according to Tuck. “We are also aware that it would be fatal to our business with the major industry players to sell to these illicit companies. Any new customer that comes to us, who we do not recognize, is thoroughly checked to ensure they are a legitimate operation who does not work with illicit manufacturers. We will, of course, not work with any company that does not pass these checks. In addition, it is normal that some technical discussion is needed between SPI and the end user to ensure that the modules are suitable and designed correctly. This gives us an opportunity to understand the end user and their needs and therefore will give plenty of opportunity to detect whether the end user is legitimate.”
With its global reach and sophisticated yet practical and affordable solutions, SPI is certain to continue being mentioned whenever the topics of flavor and adhesive application come up.
