Adnams Case Study: Bespoke Shadow Boards for 5S & Efficiency

Adnams

Strengthening Food Safety Cultureand Operational Efficiency

Adnams wanted to enhance its approach to equipment storage and visual management across the site. There were three key challenges that informed this project:

Challenge 1: A Large Site with Diverse Working Areas

The Adnams site is spread across multiple buildings, each with its own storage requirements. The business needed a consistent approach to visual management that could be adapted to suit different environments. Space was also limited in many areas, making it important to maximise available wall space and avoid bulky storage systems.

Challenge 2: Reducing Time Spent Looking for Equipment

Adnams wanted to minimise the time teams spent searching for equipment by making tools easier to locate and return. Improving equipment organisation would help to ensure utensils were always close to where they were needed, reducing unnecessary movement and supporting more efficient day-to-day operations.

Challenge 3: Nurturing a Culture of Food Safety

Adnams places food safety at the heart of its operations. The business wanted its new approach to storage to reinforce this culture by making equipment organisation more visual, engaging, and intuitive.

Operating for over 150 years, Adnams is a distinctive brewer, distiller, wine merchant, retailer, publican, and hotelier. Its beers and spirits are crafted grain to glass in Southwold, using locally sourced ingredients.

Adnams works closely with a range of trusted wine producers to offer a carefully curated selection, and its stores, hotels, pubs, and inns reflect the same commitment to quality and excellence.

The Solution – Shadow Board Equipment Storage

Klipspringer supplied a range of customised shadow board solutions tailored to the different requirements across the Adnams site. Rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, each storage system was designed to suit its specific location.

This included free-standing shadow boards mounted on lockable castors, allowing equipment to be moved where it was needed. It also included wall-mounted boards built to size to make the most of the available space.

Each shadow board features dedicated outlines for equipment, making it immediately obvious where tools belong and whether anything is missing. Colour-coded backgrounds and bespoke headers further improve visibility, helping teams to quickly identify the correct storage location.

“It was great working with Klipspringer. We wanted to push through the project as quickly as possible, so it was a big help to have the Klipspringer team visit site to help plan out the solutions and really understand our requirements.”

Connor Bartlett, Second Brewer at Adnams

The Results – Strengthening Food Safety Culture and Audit Compliance

Since introducing the new shadow board systems, Adnams has strengthened its food safety and quality culture across the site. The visual storage solutions have increased engagement with 5S, with teams taking greater ownership of standards and holding more regular discussions to drive continuous improvement.

The shadow boards have also made internal audits quicker and easier to complete. Missing or damaged equipment can be identified at a glance, making it simpler to replace items and maintain organised storage areas. This improved visibility supports food safety, operational efficiency, and ongoing audit compliance.

Designing the Right Solution Through Collaboration

Connor Bartlett, Second Brewer at Adnams, explained how partnering with Klipspringer helped to ensure the project met the needs of different teams across the site.

Connor said, “It was great working with Klipspringer. We wanted to push through the project as quickly as possible, so it was a big help to have the Klipspringer team visit site to help plan out the solutions and really understand our requirements.

It was also helpful to have the visual proofs before production on the boards started, as it meant we could share the designs with different departments and ensure we had total buy-in from each team.”