Innovative Prima system to clean and Polish Bottles

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In this project, we present an unprecedented solution - PPB; a 3-staged automatic line to completely remove iridescence, lime scales or rust from wine or champagne bottles at a success rate of 70%. It comprises cleaning, effected by nylon brushes impregnated with silicon-carbide resin; polishing using bespoke cotton spindles and a final checking stage that scans if the bottles are clean and sorts them accordingly. The complete line will be sold at a price of €55,000.This automated solution will save champagne/wine producers wine ca €2-3 for every defaced bottle it cleans, by avoiding the transfer of its contents to a clean bottle; a process that compromises wine quality and incurs logistic, bottle inventory and wine spillage costs. For instance, Moet & Chandon, the first client to request such a solution from us, stands to save €11,2million when 70% of its 8million waste bottles pa are cleaned, avoiding wine transfers. Moreover, this machine can reclaim millions of waste bottles stockpiled by producers. Due to the ground-breaking nature and high relevance of our solution, we expect to capture 90% of the champagne suppliers by selling 300 units of PPB within the first 5 years of commercialisation generating a revenue of €16.5millon, cumulative profit of €4.125million and a ROI of 2.41for PRIMA. Such a wide uptake would attract Europe wide savings of at least €94.5million pa for the successfully cleaned bottles (0.9*0.7* €150million loss associated with waste bottles). Our phase 1 technical feasibility study will cover the optimisation of parameters like brush rotation speed vs pressure vs temperature rise at an increased throughput (from the current 1,200 to 3000 bottles/hr); definition of maintenance requirements and listing of the bill of materials. We will also conduct a detailed market and risk assessment then draft an IPR strategy and business plan.