IN Brief:
- Roberts of Port Dinorwic is investing £425,000 in refrigeration and precision portioning.
- The latest work forms part of a wider £750,000 manufacturing programme.
- Earlier microwave tempering reduced a process taking around 72 hours to approximately 20 minutes.
Welsh food manufacturer Roberts of Port Dinorwic is investing £425,000 in refrigeration and precision portioning as part of a wider £750,000 factory-improvement programme.
The latest phase will replace ageing refrigeration equipment with a more energy-efficient system and introduce an X-ray-guided portioning machine capable of locating cuts to within approximately 1mm of the required position.
Roberts of Port Dinorwic manufactures ready-to-cook meal components and prepared foods from Caernarfon, North Wales. Its growth plans cover wholesale, public-sector catering, and further manufacturing partnerships.
The refrigeration project is expected to reduce annual energy costs by around £200,000, producing a projected payback period of less than two years. Replacing older equipment should also reduce exposure to breakdowns affecting chilled storage, preparation, and dispatch.
X-ray-guided portioning will allow the factory to assess the internal geometry of each product before cutting. Where meat varies in shape, thickness, density, or fat distribution, fixed cutting positions can produce inconsistent portions and avoidable product giveaway.
Roberts has already invested approximately £300,000 in microwave tempering technology, reducing a process that previously took around 72 hours to approximately 20 minutes. Frozen material can now reach a controlled processing condition much closer to the point at which it is required.
Shorter tempering gives production planners more freedom to respond to late order changes, while less material remains committed several days in advance. The factory can also reduce the space and working capital tied up in product moving slowly through tempering rooms.
Mark Rodgers, chief executive of Roberts of Port Dinorwic, said: “This investment is about much more than new machinery. It’s about building a smarter, more sustainable and more responsive manufacturing business that delivers real value for our customers.”
Yield and temperature control converge
Meat and prepared-food plants handle raw materials that rarely arrive in uniform shapes. A blade fixed at one position may create overweight portions, undersized pieces, excessive trim, or products that no longer match the visual and weight specification.
X-ray measurement enables the cutting system to calculate a more suitable position for each individual piece. Its return is generated through higher saleable yield, lower giveaway, fewer downgraded portions, and more consistent finished packs rather than speed alone.
Small improvements become significant across sustained production. An average overfill of only a few grams, repeated across thousands of portions, transfers substantial product value into packs without increasing revenue.
Cutting too aggressively creates a different loss. Underweight portions may need rework or rejection, while irregular trim can have a lower commercial value and introduce additional handling, storage, and traceability requirements.
Accurate measurement still depends on stable upstream conditions. Tempering uniformity, frozen state, product presentation, conveyor spacing, calibration, blade condition, and movement after scanning all influence the final portion.
Microwave tempering and precision portioning can therefore operate as connected stages. A controlled temperature through the centre and surface gives the cutting system material that deforms and separates more consistently.
Where the exterior has softened while the core remains hard, the product may move or fracture differently during cutting despite an accurate X-ray measurement. Temperature control, scanning, and blade mechanics must remain aligned.
The approach follows the wider move towards integrated portion control seen across Handtmann’s UK processing operation, where filling, forming, dosing, weight management, and end of line automation are increasingly treated as parts of one process.
Refrigeration carries less visible but equally significant production risk. Failure can interrupt intake, storage, preparation, cooling, and distribution across several lines, while an inefficient plant increases operating cost continuously, regardless of the products being made.
A replacement system has to balance energy efficiency with redundancy, refrigerant selection, maintenance access, temperature stability, and recovery following a fault. Savings projections will depend on operating hours, loading, ambient conditions, insulation, door management, and the quality of ongoing maintenance.
Submetering should establish whether the expected £200,000 annual saving is achieved after commissioning. Without comparable production and energy data, equipment performance can be obscured by changes in volume, weather, product mix, or operating schedules.
Roberts’ investment links three measurable factory improvements: less time spent tempering, less product lost through inaccurate portioning, and less energy consumed by refrigeration. Each can be tracked against throughput, yield, cost, and customer service.
Released capacity will place greater pressure on scheduling, sanitation, raw-material availability, and engineering support as the business expands. Faster machinery creates operational flexibility only when the surrounding factory can supply, clean, maintain, and staff it consistently.
