Douglas Willis Catering Butchers, a family business, is seeing the benefits of the Stevens Meat Traceability system recently installed at their site in Llandysl, Wales.

Douglas Willis Butchers began trading over 60 years ago as a farming and retail butchers establishment and continues into its third generation supplying to local hotels and restaurants.

Due to the stringent labelling and traceability requirements now in place across Europe, Sean Willis, MD of Douglas Willis Catering Butchers, felt it a necessity to install a system that could comply with these new regulations and deliver an improvement in yields too.

The Vantage System, installed by Stevens Weighing Group, can do just that by providing precision weighing at the same time as ensuring products are accurately traced from entering the factory to dispatch, along with the advantage of being able to draw from real time data and improve operative cutting yields.

Douglas Willis Butchershas a wide customer base, each with their own specific requirements. This in itself can pose difficulties in stock control, as well as the traceability of the product. For example, an order may require a quantity of chicken breasts. To achieve this, the Vantage System calls up the required quantity of whole chickens, but of course this process will create other components such as leg and wing portions which may need to go back into stock. The system keeps track of the different components ensuring continuity throughout the traceability chain.

The Vantage system can be used as stand-alone modules or networked as part of a fully integrated system allowing optimum use of the weight data. The system also boasts a fully sealed and waterproof operator console which can withstand regular wash-down routines making the system ideally suited to the working environments found in modern food manufacturing establishments.

Toby Hawkins, Commercial Manager of Stevens, explains more about the benefits of the Vantage system: “This application is interesting as Stevens have worked closely with Datos in Ireland and their COMiT Accounting System to provide an accurate shop floor data, stock rotation, improved yields and rapid despatch of the customers orders. All this is achieved and the Operatives are barely aware that they’re providing full traceability in line with new legislation. The improvements in yields and stock control make the project self-justifying“.