In 2011, Cloverland Farms Dairy of Baltimore embarked on an ambitious modernization campaign by replacing four aging milk filling lines with three state-of-the-art lines. The three new lines fill gallon and half-gallon jugs and cartons 50% faster than the four lines they replaced. The increase in productivity lowered the dairy’s production cost and made the company more competitive, enabling Cloverland to win new accounts. This was the largest capital project for the dairy in the past decade.
For the new filling lines, Cloverland standardized on Federal Mfg. filling machines. Cloverland had worked with Federal Mfg., a Pro Mach business, previously. Cloverland management believed that Federal Mfg.’s technology, customer support, clean-in-place system, and price delivered the best value in the industry. The new lines would also include Federal Mfg. capping technology, conveyors from Dairy Conveyor, case packers from Statco, a new, energy-efficient blow molding machine from Uniloy to replace an older model, three new labeling machines from WS Packaging Group, controls from Rockwell Automation, and related plumbing and wiring infrastructure required for a dairy filling line.