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Pernod Ricard & Europress 

One of New Zealand's leading wine, spirits and champagne companies, Pernod Ricard approached Waterworks in February 2017 with a situation that needed to be resolved urgently.

Pernod Ricard has storage tanks situated in Blenheim to hold the wine from their nearby vineyards.

Unfortunately, many of these weren't spared by the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, and they were rendered unsuitable to hold the wine from the fast-approaching harvest.

Pernod Ricard stainless steel europress

The Challenge

Andrew Waller, Engineering Manager at Pernod Ricard needed to act fast as Beca was assisting them in designing a 28-tank extension to their Auckland tank farm to take up the slack from the Blenheim facility.

Andrew approached Waterworks about using the Europress press-fit piping system for glycol reticulation on the project, due to its popularity with other wineries. 

New to the benefits of press-fit, Andrew wasn't sure if it would save them time and money over and against welding the pipework, so he split the glycol pipework for the first nine tanks between welded and Europress — awarding five tanks to a welding firm to install traditional welded stainless pipework, and four tanks to Steelcraft to install Europress.

The Tamaki tank farm also required nitrogen, water, and compressed air reticulation pipework in-tank additions. 

 

The Requirements

A robust piping system for 28 wine storage tanks, that was:

  • As fast as possible to install with the quickly approaching harvest depending on the completion of the project.
  • Competitively priced.
  • Suitable for reticulation of glycol, nitrogen, water, and compressed air.

 

Pernod Ricard stainless steel europress piping installation

THE SOLUTION

Welded installation commenced around the 7th of March, and Europress installation on the 28th March. Ten days into the Europress installation, Jason from Steelcraft commented, "it was like a time warp" – the Europress installation was complete, and the welders were only just finishing their first tank!

Andrew compared the costs of the first nine tanks: 

  Welded Europress Saving per tank
Cost of glycol pipework per tank $24,800 $20,000 19.35%
 
Steelcraft then completed a quote to do the remaining 19 tanks. Europress was even faster to install than they initially predicted, so they could reduce their labour charge. Due to the time and money savings presented, Pernod Ricard awarded the glycol pipework for the remaining 19 tanks to Steelcraft to complete in Europress.
 
 

Europress savings and speed win Steelcraft additional work 

As important as the cost, was the installation time. The welders were predicting it would take them up to 24 weeks to complete the glycol pipework for the remaining tanks, which would not have them ready in time for harvest.
 
Pernod Ricard went on to award the associated water, air, and nitrogen lines for all the tanks to Steelcraft. They even awarded them the nitrogen lines from the five welder’s tanks, as welding it just wasn’t competitive or fast enough.
 
Installation of glycol pipework on 23 tanks, plus associated nitrogen, water, and air, was completed in Europress in ten weeks. The welders had calculated that the project would take 24 weeks, but after 13 weeks they had only completed the glycol pipework for five tanks — partly due to the fact they couldn’t weld in the rainy winter weather, which didn’t affect Europress.
 
The table demonstrates the time and money savings achieved if the equivalent glycol pipework completed in Europress for 23 tanks had been completed in welded tube (includes all materials and labour costs).
 
Every day a plant isn’t operating is a significant cost in lost production — often tens of thousands. So, while the installation of Europress saved Pernod Ricard 37% in comparison to welding the pipework, the biggest saving was due to the fact it was 58% faster to install! Europress allowed Pernod Ricard to commence with production at full capacity over 2 months earlier than if they had welded the pipework.

 

Chart showing time and money savings of Europress press-fit stainless steel fittings over welding
Pernod Ricard facility using europress press-fit piping system for Glycol, Nitrogen, Air, Water
Steelcraft workers installing Europress press-fit pipe system at Pernod Ricard facility
Europress press-fit piping system installed at Pernod Ricard to circulate Glycol, Nitrogen, Air, Water

KEY BENEFITS

  • Europress cost 37% less than welding was projected.
  • Europress was 58% faster to install than welding would have been.
  • Was able to be installed in rainy conditions. 
  • The majority of the pipework was able to be modelled using Water Works' 3D drawings thus speeding up design, procurement, and installation.
  • The system was fast to install, reducing labour costs and providing project savings.
  • The rapid speed of installation meant the tank farm was ready for the harvest.

Specs

  • Europress stainless steel press-fit pipe system.
  • Transporting New glycol, nitrogen, water and compressed air.
  • Pipe sizes include 3/4" (22mm) through to 4" (108mm) stainless steel.

The installation time proved to be less than half

"We had a very tight deadline to reinstate tanks following the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake in time for vintage and needed a rapid install of services piping for new tanks being installed at the Tamaki site.

A fully welded option wasn’t going to be acceptable due to the long install time. So, we trialled Europress piping on four tanks, which was completed simultaneously with five tanks that were welded.

The result showed that the Europress option was the way to go going forward, and so the remainder of the tank farm was completed using that. The installation time proved to be less than half that which was quoted for welded pipe install, and installed costs have come in at two-thirds that of welded piping.”

Andrew Waller, Engineering Manager at Pernod Ricard

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