Wilsons Country Potato Polisher
Since Angus Wilson started the business from the family farm in 1980s Wilson’s Country has grown from strength to strength. They now employ over 100 staff who work from their 6 acre site in County Armagh Northern Ireland. Wilsons Country one of the premier potato packers and processors in Ireland. Holding key accounts with many of the leading food retailers in the country. Not only do they supply a branded Wilson’s Country range they also offer various own label ranges,exemplifying the trust placed in the company.
Haith have recently installed two of their new Patented Direct Drive Root Veg Polishers for the company, Haith’s new polisher has had a huge amount of interest from across the world with over forty of machines working already. The new drive design puts this machine well ahead of its competitors by drastically reducing the amount of maintenance required.
The new polisher has individually driven brush rollers which replace the belt driven system used by other manufacturers. Other smart features include a quick release coupling system for easy brush roller removal, triple sealed bearings mounted in cartridges for easy replacement and automated brush roller reversing to extend brush life.
After the delivery of the second machine, Duane Hill – Sales Manager for Haith contacted Lewis Cunningham, Wilson’s Managing director to ask what he thought of the new machines. Lewis replied
“Wilson’s Country had been investigating a polisher for potatoes for some time and actually had trialled a polisher some 8 / 9 years ago but felt the technology was not proven back then. In recent time we had seen Haith polishers operating with carrots and the results impressed us. On hearing that Haith had updated their potato polisher from belts to direct drives on the brushes, we decided to have a closer investigation and requested a site visit, within a very short time of being at the site we were astounded at the results. Following the site visit we then visited the Haith workshop and were able to see the construction of the polishers and note the excellent build quality and also the ease of maintenance. The business then placed a firm order for 1 polisher and a provisional order for a second polisher pending the performance that we got from the first polisher. The process from ordering to delivery was seamless with the equipment delivered on time and the commissioning was also very straight forward as Haith staff where on hand to assist and train my staff.
The yield benefits and improved product quality was evident from day 1 and continues to be evident and I would term it as “very significant”. The financial benefit obviously varies between potato samples but I am confident that we will have a payback on our investment of around 12 months. Having operated the first polisher for a couple of months we confirmed an order for a second polisher and have just received delivery.
In summary the Haith polisher has delivered our business significant product quality improvement was easily installed and commissioned, staff can also easily operate the polisher on a daily basis and to date we have had no issues.”
To find out more about Haith and its range of vegetable handling equipment, please visit our Machinery Section, email sales@haith.co.uk or call 01302 831 911.
To find out more about Wilson’s Country click here.