One of the UK's leading manufacturers of packaging machinery will celebrate two significant milestones at this year's British Potato Show.

GIC, which supplies Vertical Form Fill and Seal packaging machines, will mark 30 years of producing intermittent VFFS machines and 20 years of manufacturing continuous motion machines when it attends the November event.

"This year's British Potato Show coincides with two very special milestones for us, and we're looking forward to celebrating them in Harrogate in November," says Andy Beal, GIC's managing director. "GIC made its first-ever vertical form fill and seal machine in the summer of 1993. It was branded the VFB. Ten years later, we introduced our first continuous motion machine - a VFB8000. The design of both machines has changed considerably over the years, but our focus on manufacturing high-quality machines that offer efficiency, longevity and reliability has not wavered."

Today GIC offers a range of three intermittent machines - the GIC2100, GIC4100 and GIC5000 - and four continuous motion machines - the GIC3000, GIC3100, GIC8000 and GIC8100. GIC also offers two versions of its compact packer – the GIC CUB and CUB HC for high-care environments.

The company's latest GIC8000 will be taking centre stage on Stand 230 in Hall 2 at the Yorkshire Event Centre from 23 and 23 November.

The GIC8000 is a high-speed continuous motion vertical form fill and seal packaging machine capable of cycling at 100 packs per minute.

The latest generation features maintenance-free Allen Bradley Rockwell servo motor drives for all machine movements, including film feed, crimp jaw opening and closing, and crimp jaw vertical motion. The ten-inch operator-friendly HMI colour touchscreen controls are complemented by tool-free size changing, a fully-integrated coder station, reel run-out detection, and an out-of-tolerance temperature sensor on the Heat Seal Crimp Jaws.

In the thirty years of manufacturing VFFS machines, GIC has supplied more than 700 machines to customers across many types of fresh and frozen produce, including Branston Ltd, IPL and RS Cockerill in the potato industry.

As well as design and installation, GIC also provides a complete after-sales package for its customers to ensure their machines run to maximum efficiency.

For further information about GIC, visit stand 230 in Hall 2 at British Potato or www.gic.uk.net, email info@gic.uk.net or call 01427 611885.