Expansion

Lotus Bakeries offers an extensive range of waffles: Liège waffles, vanilla waffles, soft waffles, filled waffles and crispy galettes. The production facility where these Lotus® waffles are baked is located in Courcelles, situated in the Belgian province of Hainaut. Hervé Springael, the Plant Manager at Courcelles, proudly looks back on the completed expansion at the manufacturing site.

Since the end of 2016, the entire production of waffles has been centralised at the Courcelles site. In order to build on the already strong market position, continuous investments are also made in this range. Lotus® waffles have seen solid growth in recent years, so it’s the optimum timing for the expansion.

“In the current building, we were simply at our limit if we wanted to continue to serve our customers on time and to be ready to face the future,” says Hervé Springael, Plant Manager Courcelles. “We are seeing our sales increasing further every year, especially those of the Liège waffles. Thanks to previous adjustments to the work organisation, it was still possible to boost the production. For example, the usage of the production lines was optimised to the maximum, as was the deployment of the teams. But all the lines are now running continuously, 24/7, partly thanks to the weekend shifts. So only an extra production line would ensure that we could increase capacity and produce additional volumes of Liège waffles.”

Work on the new production hall commenced at the end of 2021. By September 2022, the main works on the hall had been completed, and the installation of the additional production line could get underway.

The brand-new expansion, measuring more than 6,000 m 2 in total, is located on the same plot as the existing production site and makes it a third larger than its existing surface area. The new hall includes space for new production lines, a new warehouse to store raw materials, a technical space for all utilities, as well as a storage area for packaging materials. “At present, one additional line for Liège waffles has been installed in the new production area, but there is space for at least a second one. This additional line brings the total to four production lines for Liège waffles in Courcelles,” Hervé continues.

A lot of emphasis was placed on pleasant and energy-efficient LED lighting and maintenance-friendly materials.

However, the expansions experienced their fair share of setbacks. The ongoing global supply chain problems and limitations in the supply of parts and materials, including the unexpectedly quick recovery of the global economy after the pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine, created challenges.

“The delivery times of building materials were longer than initially promised and we had to wait for specific electronic components for our equipment. Components that were critical in order to start the new line. These external factors did not always make it easy to follow the predetermined schedule. Fortunately, both the Engineering department colleagues, the Courcelles team and our suppliers were always able to find solutions and we managed to deliver on our promises to our commercial colleagues and to our customers,” Hervé explains.

What was the big secret to the success of this impressive piece of work?

“The tremendous flexibility that our colleagues in the organisation have demonstrated and the excellent collaboration between the different teams,” Hervé answers without hesitation. Installing advanced and hightech equipment for waffle production and packaging lines requires a lot of expertise and experience. And that is exactly what the various teams put in to achieve this project together.

“The colleagues from Courcelles have the knowledge and experience with the equipment and processes at the site, while the Engineering colleagues offered added value thanks to their specific expertise on the product, energy or packaging. Each problem or challenge could be approached from multiple angles and therefore could be solved much more quickly. We can really say that the synergy between the two teams has had a very positive effect. The fact that, despite everything, they succeeded in getting the line operational is the best proof of that. Well done for this achievement!”

In addition to a new building and machinery, manpower has also increased. The workforce in Courcelles has more than doubled in the course of seven years. The Lotus team in Courcelles now has more than 220 employees, who together ensure that the high-quality waffles are in high demand, in particular in Belgium and France.

“We very much welcome the future of Courcelles! The capacity expansion offers numerous new opportunities to be able to attract new consumers and to continue to inspire existing ones,” concludes Hervé.