FoodChain Issue 108 December 2015

FoodChain Issue 108

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DEC 2015

The business of food and drink

More than premium patties Since its first restaurant opened in 1971, McDonald’s Germany has gone from strength to strength

Industry News l

Keep it safe The need for robust security in the food supply chain – new technologies are adding to the burden

High quality sausages can be eaten with confidence

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Launch of ‘Innovative Farmers’ network announced

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Packing solution helps double order throughput

Not so black and white Barcodes have proved pivotal in helping businesses achieve complete traceability

FoodChain AUTUMN

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2015

THE BUSINESS OF FOOD AND DRINK

More than

premium patties Since its first restaurant opened in 1971, McDonald’s Germany has gone from strength to strength

Editor’s Welcome

Industry News L High

quality sausages can be eaten with confidence

Keep it safe The need for robust security in the food supply chain – new technologies are adding to the burden

L Launch

of ‘Innovative Farmers’ network announced

L Packing

solution helps double order throughput

Not so black and white Barcodes have proved pivotal in helping businesses achieve complete traceability

A delicious new look

Chairman Andrew Schofield Editor Libbie Hammond Art Editor Advertising Design Fleur Daniels Staff Writers Jo Cooper Andrew Dann Ben Clark Profiles Manager Emma Crane Business Development Director David Garner Sales Manager Joe Woolsgrove Sales Rob Wagner Emma Kerton Head of Research Philip Monument Editorial Researcher David Brogan Office Manager Advertising Administrator Tracy Chynoweth Studio Assistant Barnaby Schofield

W

e’ve always been proud of how FoodChain magazine looked and I am very pleased to be able to tell you all that at last the website looks just as good too.

If you visit our new URL www.foodchainmagazine.com you will see that we’ve

created a clean and simple site that is easy to negotiate and is more in line with the high quality standards of design we maintain in our digital and hard copy

Follow us at:

issues of the magazine.

We are also keeping our old site and URL as a very useful archive – but it is the new site that I want everyone to take a look at!

@FoodChain_mag

If you’d like your company featured on www.foodchainmagazine.com, please get in touch.

Schofield Publishing Cringleford Business Centre, 10 Intwood Road, Cringleford, Norwich, NR4 6AU, U.K. Tel: +44 (0)1603 274130 Fax: +44 (0)1603 274131

libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

www.foodchainmagazine.com www.schofieldpublishing.co.uk © 2015 Schofield Publishing Ltd Please note: The opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers within this publication do not necessarily coincide with those of the editor and publisher. Every reasonable effort is made to ensure that the information published is accurate, but no legal responsibility for loss occasioned by the use of such information can be accepted by the publisher. All rights reserved. The contents of the magazine are strictly copyright, the property of Schofield Publishing, and may not be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Contents 20

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4 8 14 Features Health & Safety At the heart of operations

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Food and beverage manufacturers need to embrace health and safety and put it at the centre of their business

Weather & Supply Chain Conditions for success

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Process Solutions Pass or fail

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Traceability Trace for life

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Barcodes have proven pivotal in helping businesses achieve complete traceability

What we are seeing in today’s fast-evolving catering sector is a more creative approach

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Viewing traceability information, at both a high and drilled down level, allows full understanding of the supply chain

News

Catering Equipment Cooking up success

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Process manufacturing executives are rethinking how they develop and launch new products

The increasing use of mobile devices and cloud-based services all contribute to the security burden

Warehousing Not so black and white

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Libbie Hammond discusses trends in labelling with Stuart Kellock and Christophe Roucher

How food and drink businesses are being forced to adapt to weather risk scenarios

IT Keep it safe

Labelling Looking ahead

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Up-to-date products and announcements from the food and beverage sector

Taste Test

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The FoodChain team sample a selection of new and innovative foods and drinks

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Profiles

Innovations & developments within some of the world’s finest companies

McDonald’s Germany 28

McDonald’s Germany continues to prioritise quality in all areas of operation

FRHI Hotels & Resorts 34

FRHI’s vision is to be the world’s ‘preferred hospitality company’, providing each guest with an unforgettable experience

Elite Service Partner 38

In the time since the company was founded, Elite Service Partner has grown into Norway’s largest services company

Godiva 42

A dedication to luxury and indulgence in chocolate has never wavered for Godiva

Balticovo 46

Looking ahead, leading egg producer Balticovo is continuing to diversify its portfolio in order to expand its market footprint

Cosucra 48

Well established chicory and pea processor Cosucra has invested 30 million euros in new equipment

Macdonald Hotels 52

Macdonald Hotels ensures each of its hotels has its own individual charm and takes on the character of the area in which it is located

Steritech 56

Steritech brings to market a range of high quality, innovative and process driven sterilisation and pasteurisation systems

The Welsh Pantry 59

A significant manufacturer in the UK savoury market, The Welsh Pantry keeps its focus on quality and efficiency

Diosna Dierks & Sohne 62

Innovative dough production company Diosna Dierks & Sohne has ambitions to be a globally leading dough expert

Gunnar Klo 64

Fish manufacturer Gunnar Klo is part of a pilot cod hotel project to find out if cod can be kept in temporary sea storage locations

Budelpack 68

Forward thinking Budelpack is always striving to create new business model for customers, including its new On-Site concept

Sharpak - Yate and Bridgewater 72

With a period of successful growth under its belt, the future for Sharpak is positive, and it sees opportunities going forward

Hennig-Olsen 78

Ice cream manufacturer Hennig-Olsen has launched both low fat frozen yogurt and luxury dairy ice cream this year

Sweetdreams 82

It is an exciting time for Sweetdreams as the company works on its expansion plans and introduces more customers to its products

J.J. Darboven 84

What sets J.J. Darboven apart from its competitors in its market are the premium brands that it manufactures

Aldaris 88

With the upcoming release of its range of craft beers and speciality porter, Aldaris is set to provide clients with even more variety

Just Hospitality 92

The core business of Just Hospitality is contract catering, but it also offers events catering and supports commercial outlets

Morrow Brothers 94

As a family business, cask and keg refurbisher Morrow Brothers is able to move its strategy quickly

EWOS (Group) 96

EWOS continues its committed approach to driving innovation forward in the production of food for the aquaculture industry

Starwood Hotels 98

Starwood Hotels is very much focused on continuing expansion and growing its already extensive brand and hotel portfolio

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At the heart

of operations The global reach of the UK’s food and drink industry, and the cultural diversity and variety of specialisms within it, can pose safety and health challenges for businesses.

John Boyle, chair of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health’s (IOSH) Food and Drink Group discusses…

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John Boyle

s a truly international industry, food and drink manufacturers face an ever-growing and complex set of issues, particularly as the industry embraces new and emerging technologies.

Nowadays we see an array of different cultures involved in the food production process, with food and personnel moving across international boundaries, depending on the season, price, customer and market demands.

Market demands and pressures have

Health & Safety of safety and health. It is hoped the revised publication will help provide the step change in performance that was achieved by its predecessor.

Transportation Transportation and fleet management is a particular focus, which is a major part of the modern day food and drink manufacturing production chain. Whether it is taking raw goods to factories for processing or moving finished products to suppliers, customers and stockists, higher demands are being placed on workers to get food and drink to where the market demands.

With this ever-mobile and transient workforce, businesses have to manage significant fleets and allow workers to manage their own schedules.

Companies have a legal and ethical duty to monitor these activities and ensure that their workers aren’t putting themselves or others at risk.

IOSH Food and Drink Group recently worked in collaboration with Retail and Distribution Groups to develop a highly successful transport event. It provided a unique opportunity for fleet managers and safety professionals to physically understand the difficulties limitations experienced when moving vehicles around premises. The event also showcased state-of-the-art solutions to fleet manager and safety professionals.

Machinery

become more diverse and complex.

Pressures on the ability to supply a product when needed in an environment where cost is a continuous focus is difficult. The industry must always continually evolve, innovate and develop to survive in this international market.

A couple of subjects are a key focus for the Group and the food and drink industry at present. These are outlined within the revised HSE publication Recipe for Safety, which includes an increasing focus on the ‘health’ part

As the industry develops and changes to utilise an ever-growing, more complex and diverse range of equipment, it is important to understand the roles and responsibilities of customers and machinery suppliers. For many years there has been a common misconception that a CE marked machine is a safe machine. It is important to remember that the CE mark does not guarantee safety.

As users it is important to ensure a machine is safe to use and management systems are in place to maintain that integrity. The PUWER risk assessment process is an essential tool during this process. Proactive organisations should actively source suppliers that will work to common

goals. Generating a strong desire to learn and work together to develop safe and efficient machinery.

As the industry changes, companies need to evolve their working practices to ensure workers’ safety.

Companies need to constantly innovate, develop and embrace new methods of working. It is crucial to question existing working practices.

Any evaluation can help provide both operational and safety improvements and provide a prime opportunity for lean and safety initiatives to work together to achieve a common goal.

Health Occupational health is one of the main themes of this year’s National Food and Drink Manufacturing Conference, which the Group will host in October. There are often complex and long term issues that require the involvement of professionals to identify solutions. The Recipe for Safety guidance aims to provide practical help and assistance so that companies can instil effective control and assessment of exposure to hazards that create health risks, and can help prevent costly litigation.

This summer has seen a real push by the Group and Institution to bring the safety and health of those workers who collect fruit and veg from the fields into focus. New research commissioned

by IOSH and conducted by Imperial College London aimed to shed new light on the risks that exposure to solar radiation can pose to workers.

The research found that nearly 50 people a year in the UK die from malignant melanoma – the most deadly form of skin cancer – developed following exposure to solar radiation at work, with 240 new cases being registered annually. A further 1500 non-melanoma skin cancer cases are caused by outdoor work each year.

The findings were published as part of the Institution’s No Time to Lose campaign to raise awareness of occupational cancers. Through the initiative, businesses are being urged to develop sun safety strategies that include elements such as regular updates on the UV index from weather forecasts, minimising sun exposure

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Health & Safety

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in the middle of the day and asking employees to wear long-sleeved, loosefitting tops and trousers. While using high-factor sunscreen is helpful, it should not be relied on as the only barrier to the harmful rays. More than 100 leading businesses have also given the initiative their support to date. For more details about the campaign, and to access free resources, visit www.notimetolose.org.uk.

Awards

We as a Group regularly encounter examples of innovations making a difference for workers. It is important to recognise and reward success and hard work internally and externally. Through our annual awards we continue to see numerous examples of on-going work to eliminate hazards and control risks, including ideas that have come from both up high or have stemmed from those on the shop floor.

What we see is a real passion and drive within the industry to improve safety, there also remains the need for companies to cater for their workers’ health and wellbeing too.

As a Group, we aim to recognise organisations and projects that have produced a practical solution to, and made a positive impact on, a safety and health problem in the industry through

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Companies need to constantly innovate, develop and embrace new methods of working. It is crucial to question existing working practices

our National Food and Drink Industry Health and Safety Awards.

Ireland-based Green Isle Foods won the award in 2014, after engineers came up with a simple solution to eliminate a significant hazard at its pizza factory in Longford, Co Longford.

They spotted that workers were lifting heavy equipment at height whenever the positioners were used to place dough balls correctly.

Engineers developed an engineering solution that limited the risk of causing manual handling injuries. The staff and management worked together as a team to implement a safer and more efficient process.

Winning the award has helped to strengthen the safety culture at the factory by demonstrating the benefits to employees of reporting safety concerns and looking for improvement.

It has also encouraged the site

team to use their own skills and knowledge of the process to come up with solutions that safely eliminate or reduce hazards, while also contributing positively to the production process.

I believe that by embracing safety and health and having it at the heart of operations from the outset, rather than seeing it as a bolt-on or tick-box exercise, companies can achieve improved results both as a business and for their workforce. D IOSH is the Chartered body for health and safety professionals.

With more than 44,000 members in 120 countries, it is the world’s biggest professional health and safety organisation. IOSH aims to promote examples of best practice across the industry through its Food and Drink Group. The group comprises over 1000 members who work in the food and drink manufacturing, bottling and canning industries and the catering sector.

The IOSH Food and Drink Group is due to hold its National Food and Drink Manufacturing Conference and Awards at Chesford Grange Hotel, Warwickshire, on 6-7 October. www.iosh.com

IndustryNews

£3.6m investment Food and drink group Princes is set to invest £3.6m in its largest food production site in the UK as part of its ongoing commitment to strengthening its UK operations.

With work due to start in April 2016, the investment will see the creation of new staff changing and catering facilities and a new office at Long Sutton. A new on-site restaurant will cater for the site’s 660 employees, forming part of Princes Public Health Responsibility Deal pledge to provide healthier staff restaurants.

Development work also involves an upgrade of existing welfare facilities in the main office including new staff locker rooms, toilets and shower facilities.

Work is targeted to be completed by December 2016 and will provide a new workspace that will support teamwork and communications across the site teams and operational efficiencies.

Ruth Simpson, Corporate Relations Director for Princes, said: “Ongoing investment in our operations comes despite a challenging global marketplace

Doubling productivity and helps us bolster local sourcing for products sold right across the UK. We are committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of all our employees...and investing in providing them with a modern working environment promotes the development of Long Sutton as a best-practice producer of UK canned food.

“We are proud to work with local growers and suppliers right across Lincolnshire, who provide us with a range of produce for our Crosse & Blackwell and Batchelors brands.” www.princes.co.uk

Pillow of popcorn Tyrrells Poshcorn, the new popcorn range from snack brand Tyrrells, is getting into the Christmas spirit with its first super sized seasonal sharing packs. The aptly named ‘Pillow of Poshcorn’, is available in Tyrrells best-selling Sweet & Salty variant, now made with golden caster sugar and recent winner of a Great Taste Award.

Jocelyn McNulty, Tyrrells Marketing Director commented; “Sharing bags have always been a party essential and popcorn is currently undergoing a huge growth in demand. The category is now worth £95m and growing at 34 per cent YOY.

Combine this with an increasing trend for informal home-entertaining with friends and family, this pack will hopefully sit at the heart of good times all over Britain throughout the festive period. Either that, or it makes for a very convenient pillow.” www.tyrrellscrisps.co.uk

Axiom GB has designed and completed an automated packing and dispatch solution for Asda Stores which has enabled it to double its order throughput of its online George. com homeware merchandise without increasing the footprint of the original manual operation.

The Asda homeware business operates over three floors on the Clipper site. The automated process begins on the bottom floor where three different sized boxes are produced and then loaded onto a conveyor, travelling directly to the operatives in the picking areas located on the third and ground floors.

Pickers sign into the warehouse management system which gives them a group of orders in priority and the size of box required for each pick.

Each box is then assigned a unique label which is scanned at various stages throughout the packing process.

Axiom designed the software using a combination of standard software for conveyor and automation control, integration and business logic software for the Manhattan interfaces and MetaPack for dynamic label generation.

Once each order has been picked all the filled boxes travel by conveyor through the checkweigh section on the ground floor to ensure pick accuracy. The next stop is quality control where the boxes are checked to see if additional void fill or protective packaging is required.

They are then placed back onto a conveyor to be taken automatically to the lidding area.

Integration between MetaPack and Axiom software ensures that the correct label is applied to each box as the two labelling machines work in tandem. All online purchases are either delivered to a customer’s home address or Click and Collect orders are sent to the customer’s nearest store. www.axiomgb.com

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Conditions for success How food and drink businesses are being forced to adapt to weather risk scenarios.

By Kurt Cripps

Kurt Cripps

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F

or food and drink businesses weather is no small talk topic. It is a volatile external factor influencing consumer behaviour and market dynamics. The weather can quite literally make or break a company’s year.

The perception that our climate is becoming less predictable appears to be borne out by evidence from a number of sources; food and drink companies are indeed experiencing sometimes significant impacts on their revenues, costs and margins.

In 2013, the Aon Food and Drink Risk Survey1 identified weather as a top ten risk for UK food and drink businesses with 16 per cent confirming they had been impacted by weatherrelated risks during 2012.

Unsurprisingly for many of the

businesses impacted, 2012 was the second wettest year on record; March 2013 was the coldest since 1962 and July 2013 the 3rd warmest on record.

2015 has also been a disappointment for many manufacturers who rely on the summer months to deliver their peak demand as the temperature rises.

The Met Office said summer 2015 was cooler and wetter than either of the two previous summers, with a provisional mean temperature of 13.9C, which is 0.4C below the 1981-2010 average.

Conversely, rainfall was above average, with 113 per cent of the average falling on UK shores during the summer months.

But while food and drink businesses will expect wet and cold weather during autumn and winter, what if seasonal averages upon which their forward

Weather & Supply Chain

‘

planning is based no longer apply? How much of that financial impact can be absorbed?

The question for food

Manage risk

tolerance. How much bad

Manufacturers have a variety of means at their disposal to manage the risk posed by unseasonal weather. For some this means an approach that smoothes their exposure to volatility in commodity prices of raw materials like wheat, rice, coffee and other staples.

Wheat averaged a price of 404.25 USD/ BU from 1982 until 2015, reaching an all-time high of 1194.50 USD/BU in February of 2008 and a record low of 192 in July of 1999. In the late 1990s this volatility prompted the creation of the very first ‘weather derivatives’ which allowed companies to reduce the risk associated with adverse or unexpected

manufacturers is about weather is too much? weather conditions; paying out if conditions force commodity prices up beyond a pre-defined tolerance or if poor conditions impact a key trading season.

Given the advances in these financial instruments, it would seem the food and drink manufacturing industry is well on its way to beating the climate at its own game and ensuring that no amount of rain can stop its parade. However, a scan of any stock-market-listed manufacturer’s

investor relations pages where finance directors explain to shareholders about business performance will tell you that the weather remains high on bosses’ list of problems at which to point the finger of blame. 2015 has been no exception, with an inclement summer unfortunately hitting the bottom line for some as sales, and profits, both fell (see box).

Ironically, the opposite can also be true. Two years ago, the weather was blamed by major food brands on the high street for a fall in customer numbers, but industry trade magazines simultaneously reported in the same month (July 2013) that ice cream sales had shot up by as much as 300 per cent, with retailers struggling to fill shelves quick enough to meet demand.

If you look back far enough, the

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Weather & Supply Chain Prepared for a rainy day? l AG

Barr: Reporting figures for the first half of 2015, the Scottish company said bad weather in August had hit drinks sales, forecasting a five per cent decrease in annual pre-tax profits

l C&C

Group: The makers of Magners cider and Tennent’s lager said wet and cold weather in Ireland and Scotland had a negative impact on business, with trading weaker in the three months to May 2015

l Grocery

sales slump: Scottish Retail Consortium reports food sales down 4.5 per cent - wet weather and deflation to blame

resignation by manufacturers over how weather impacts their business is categorical, and in most cases made without any recourse to a solution. The default position is to hope that this year things will work in your favour.

Unfortunately, investors appear increasingly to label this tactic in rather unflattering terms. ‘Earnings excuses’ was the subject of a recent article in Fortune Magazine titled ‘the weather ate my returns’, highlighting how the weather alongside other macro trends like currency fluctuations, the price of oil and so on are increasingly used to justify falling profits. “A 2014 study by Emory University researcher Dexin Zhou, titled ‘The Blame Game,’ found that the more corporate executives blamed poor performance on external factors, the less their stocks returned in the future2,” it said.

The question for food manufacturers is about tolerance. How much bad weather is too much? Every organisation has a risk appetite but with modern

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approaches to data mining and analytics it has now become possible for companies to identify and isolate a trading loss as an insurable interest and hedge against that loss without resorting to complex derivatives.

Historical climate analysis can be overlaid against trading data to produce a ‘real time’ review of how and why the weather influenced your company’s sales over time. For companies that habitually look to the skies for a reason why consumers open their wallets, this can be a very powerful tool, not only when sales drop but also when demand surges beyond expectations.

The UK has recently been enjoying just such a scenario with the Rugby World Cup coming to a close on 31st October. The fate of numerous food and drink brands has been riding on the success of the competition with beer and tied promotions in every retail outlet.

Indeed, the performance of the home nations’ teams can and does

have an influence on sales, leading many manufacturers to build ‘what if?’ scenarios into their production planning. But when pub gardens across the country are washed out from an unseasonal deluge it stands to reason that winning on the field should not be the only variable a manufacturer should plan for. D 1

Web-based survey conducted in Q4 2012

in conjunction with The Grocer 2

http://fortune.com/2015/04/24/the-

weather-ate-my-returns/

Kurt Cripps is Global Head of Weather at Aon Benfield. Aon plc is a leading global provider of risk management, insurance brokerage and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services. Through its more than 69,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon unites to empower results for clients in over 120 countries via innovative risk and people solutions. www.aon.com

IndustryNews Stylish savoury

Good news for good sausages

Crewe-based Wrights Food Group has introduced a taste of the Mediterranean to the ‘grab and go’ market, following the launch of its meatball marinara lattice. Encased in Wrights’ classic golden puff pastry, the savoury slice is filled with seasoned meatballs and pockets of melted Gruyère cheese in a rich tomato sauce.

Head of new food development Sue Gwilliam said: “When it comes to developing a new product for the ‘grab and go’ market, innovation is key. With busy schedules the workplace lunch hour is rapidly becoming a short break where the consumer grabs a quick bite on the go. Eating habits have changed to cater with the culture shift, and we’ve looked to fill this gap in the market by developing a product which offers home-style cooking and can be consumed on the move. Our meatball marinara lattice was taste-tested by our new product development team in our dedicated food innovation suite, to ensure it exceeds customer expectations.

The recipe was developed using quality beef and authentic Italian herbs. We also added pockets of melted cheese to give the rich tomato sauce a savoury kick.” www.wrightsfoodgroup.com

A leading UK artisan food producer, Finnebrogue, and celebrity Irish chef Paul Rankin, have commented that the IARC report released in October into red meat was good news for the best, fresh British and Irish sausages, as they do not use any of the processes or chemicals referred to in the report.

Finnebrogue develops a range of quality sausages for the UK market including the Rankin Selection Irish Family Sausage, developed with celebrity chef, Paul Rankin, and award-winning Good Little Company sausages.

A spokesperson for the company said: “While it is buried within the footnotes, the processed meat the report refers to ‘has been transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavour or improve preservation’. These processes and chemicals are generally not used in the production of the high quality traditional fresh Irish or British sausage and at no stage is the meat ‘transformed’. We believe it is important that consumers are made aware of this key difference and can take confidence in the fact that the high quality Irish or British fresh sausages they buy have not been transformed and do not contain any of the chemicals referred to in the IARC report.” www.finnebrogue.com

Innovative initiative The British Growers Association, the UK’s leading horticultural body, has welcomed the launch of ‘Innovative Farmers’, a new network to support innovation by farmers and growers, putting growers firmly in the driving seat of horticultural research.

Created by an unprecedented partnership of farming groups, the new ‘Innovative Farmers’ network provides growers with research support, funding and it matches growers with some of the UK’s best research teams, including Rothamsted Research, IBERS and Harper Adams University.

The not-for-profit network is part of the Duchy Future Farming Programme, funded by the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation, and partners include The Soil Association, Organic Research Centre, Waitrose, LEAF

(Linking Environment and Farming) and Innovation in Agriculture, to ensure the new network represents farmers and growers across the industry.

Jack Ward, chief executive of British Growers Association, said: “Maintaining a globally competitive industry is a constant challenge for UK growers. Many overseas competitors have significant advantages through favourable exchange rates and reduced labour costs. This new initiative will supplement the high level research with grower focused projects which can address current and future opportunities at the farm level.”

At the heart of the network are ‘field labs’, where growers meet in small groups to test and develop new ways of tackling a shared problem or opportunity. Field labs have already

tackled topics from reducing antibiotic use in dairy farming to methods in controlling blackgrass, with farmers driving investigations. The field labs were inspired by the ‘farmer field schools’ that started in Indonesia, now a movement that has involved more than ten million farmers in teaming up as groups to learn and solve problems together. The new network adapts this approach to suit the UK’s most innovative farmers.

As well as inviting farmers to join, the network is encouraging farm advisors to get involved as group co-ordinators, accessing benefits for themselves and the farmers they work with. The first 20 co-ordinators have already received their free training. www.innovativefarmers.org www.britishgrowers.org

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Keep it safe

Security in the food supply chain needs to be robust in terms of preventing unauthorised access to systems and also in terms of fault-tolerance, so that when something does go wrong, it is detected and dealt with quickly

I

T security in the food chain is mainly thought of as maintaining data confidentiality and restricting access to the system but the true goal of security should be to protect not only confidentiality but the integrity and the availability of systems as well.

Application vulnerabilities and malware top the list of concerns among many businesses, not least those in the food and drink sector. To combat this the first priority for your application’s security should be to ensure that when it talks to your database that the connection is safe.

CSfD’s chief technical officer Ian Hampson says: “Within our Pentelon product suite, we offer our customers a choice: they can use Pentelon’s own built in log-in facility and create a unique user name and password or they can

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use Windows credentials that they already have set up.

“The great advantage of this is that a separate set of user names and passwords don’t need to be set up and remembered - providing the customer with control over their system with the security they already have in place.”

Secondly, your application should provide full authentication. That is, only allowing users to log on to the system who have permission. A very important aspect of a user account system is how user passwords are protected. Website user account databases in particular are hacked frequently, so you must do something to protect your users’ passwords in case your site is ever breached.

The best way to protect passwords is to employ salted password hashing.

Hashing is the process by which a password is turned into a fixed sized alphanumeric string. This is great for protecting passwords, because it stores them in a form that protects them even if the password file itself is compromised as at no point is the plaintext (unencrypted) password ever written to the hard drive. A salt is a random string of data used to modify a password hash, offering further levels of protection should the hashes ever be dissolved.

Thirdly, your application should allow you to control authorisations. That is, controlling which programs a user has access to.

Hampson explains: “All access to Pentelon applications is via a Login Database. This holds all login, operator role, security and company data.

Pentelon also uses group policies that

IT

allow you to assign selective programs to a group. An operator can then be assigned to that group and will only see programs that are relevant to the work that they are doing.

“It also holds the latest version number of the application so Pentelon may reject login attempts by incorrect versions of an application.”

Administration should be entirely separate from normal system use and logging in as an administrator should only provide access to administrative functions.

Your application software should also provide you with a log of all changes being made to your system so that when an administrator makes a change to security related data, you know who did what and when.

Hampson adds: “The Pentelon security log data can be exported and analysed so it can be interrogated. Most systems should have this feature for added security, which is paramount for understanding when and where any foul play has occurred.

“The system should also place a limit on failed attempts, so for example, if repeated attempts are made to access your system using incorrect log-in details then the account will lock and require administrator assistance to release it again.

The resiliency of any application will always to some extent be dependent on the infrastructure that it is installed on and measures such as placing your databases in high availability clusters can greatly assist with the availability of your system for its users.

Such resilience comes at a cost and the organisation must carry out a full risk assessment to determine what level of risk is acceptable to the business and make decisions accordingly. If your application does fail, you want to minimise the impact that it has on your operations by reducing the incidence of data corruption.

“Pentelon prevents the problem of widespread data corruption in the event of a system failure as it stops inconsistent data being introduced to the database. You may lose the current transaction if it has not completed at the time of the catastrophic event but it will not pass on incomplete transactions.

Similar resilience is true for any web front end, including mobile apps where you may lose signal,” says Hampson.

CSfD’s own approach to security is something that is taken very seriously, from requirements for minimum password complexity to the use of secure virtual private networks (VPN) for remote working. As Stephen Toms, systems manager at CSfD states: “We have policies on what can and can’t be attached to our network, robust anti-virus measures have to meet some exacting confidentiality standards for some of our clients working in the public sector. Our approach to security is the same for us as it is for our application software, secure without being intrusive so it is not getting in the way of people being able to do their jobs.

“At the end of the day we want users to be set up to work safely but without having to worry about it.”

Cyber terrorism and trusted third parties are other concerns trending upward. Toms adds: “Our customers have approached us for reassurance that our application systems are safe in view of threats from software security bugs such as Heartbleed and Shellshock which can allow hackers to gain unauthorised access to information and computer systems. Our products are not open to public access and we have no dependency on open source code in our products, so there is no threat with regard to Pentelon.”

However both CSfD and its customers now operate at least in part in the cloud and it is imperative in such environments that access is properly

controlled. Robust defences such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS) and problem-solving measures are essential, along with regular anti-virus health checks. VPNs between private networks and cloud services should be used to restrict the IP addresses and services that are available in order to minimise opportunities for attack or intrusion.

Tom says: “We can help customers who use our Pentelon Data Integrator for hooking up our backend systems to web services by using load balancing features to ensure system availability. We can host two instances in different availability zones, that is different data centres with different risk profiles.”

The increasing use of mobile devices and cloud-based services and the future potential of the Internet-of-Things will all continue to contribute to the security burden. The focus is increasingly on securing traffic in transit. No doubt cyberthreats, such as Heartbleed, will continue to abound - becoming increasingly varied and sophisticated. Marry this together with the broadening footprint of devices and interoperability required and security is going to remain a full time job. D CSfD is a market leader in innovative, flexible supply chain software systems that help businesses with large-scale logistics and distribution requirements grow their business. Its products are widely used in food and pharmaceutical wholesale, third party logistics, utilities and government market sectors.

CSfD’s Pentelon Product Suite delivers fast and efficient solutions across the most commonly used distribution management functions: order processing, purchasing, warehouse management, inventory management and customer relationship management. www.csfd.com

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Not so black and white W Barcode printers are the unsung heroes of warehouses.

Peter Laplanche reflects on keeping them operational 14 www.foodchainmagazine.com

hen Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver patented a device in 1952 that would electronically read printed materials it’s doubtful they envisaged the impact their primitive barcode invention would have in the future world of logistics, manufacturing and retail.

Across every sector, barcodes are the key to efficiency. In the food chain specifically, barcodes have proved pivotal in helping businesses achieve complete traceability for reasons of compliance, safety and business process improvement.

When barcodes go ‘bad’ In busy warehouses the last thing needed is for ‘bad’ barcodes to enter the production or distribution system.

A bad barcode reduces efficiency, it slows production lines, can result in non-compliance fines, or lead to rejected or delayed deliveries. If a load is rejected by retailers for failing to comply with labelling standards there’s usually a chargeback penalty. Tesco is said to fine £40,000 per chargeback incident, and goods are returned at the manufacturer’s expense.

Of course chargebacks arise from many issues from mislabeled, mispacked or late deliveries, to cracked pallets and short loads. Industry reports suggest that chargebacks can reduce supplier revenues by upwards of ten per cent making them a significant cause for concern.

Vendor compliance fines related to ‘bad’ barcodes are commonplace when suppliers don’t validate their barcodes

Warehousing

and they’re such an unnecessary cost.

A good online data validation system (ODV) like that from Printronix is a closed loop, unmanned quality control system that monitors the printing process and prevents bad barcodes entering the supply chain.

It analyses the barcode on each label to ensure the linear codes fall well within the barcode symbology specifications. If the label doesn’t meet the spec, the ODV uses its datastream analysis to overstrike the bad label and print a ‘good’ replacement. It delivers 100 per cent scannable barcodes to your production area every time.

There’s no costly human intervention in the validation process and ROI is almost instantaneous. It’s a great tool for saving time and money and increasing productivity.

The ODV’s Data Manager takes ‘snapshots’ of data to either be analysed immediately or archived for true quality control. If a printer is identified as producing bad barcodes or data failures, the ODV automatically places it into ‘fault’ condition to not only highlight that it needs fixing but also to ensure no more bad data enters the supply chain.

Compliance labeling eliminates packing and shipping errors, it accelerates flow of goods through the warehouse and reduces operating costs, which, in turn, improves profitability.

‘

Some sites have 20-year old printers yet the operations guys are reluctant to upgrade in case something goes wrong and production is adversely affected

‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. The fear is understandable and underlines how mission critical these workhorses are to the supply chain and how fundamental their role in operational resilience. Yet few have grasped how MPS could not only minimise business interruption but also reduce costs — typically by 30 per cent.

Thermal printers last, on average, eight years while line matrix devices are often used way beyond 12 years.

Legacy printers do not have infinite lifespans and the current field service model is becoming outdated and expensive. New technology is simplified so the need for real engineering skills is fast diminishing.

Businesses don’t want high-end expertise to repair printers, they just want the affected unit replaced at the lowest cost and fastest time so they can return to full productivity, which is where MPS can help.

The growing importance of track and trace Customer service is the new battleground for manufacturers and retailers as they strive for flawless fulfilment. The added complexity of multiple channels to market means there needs to be greater visibility and agility in track and trace.

Consumers now have multiple touch points from which to buy, ranging from bricks and mortar stores to social media. And their expectation is immediacy; same day or next day delivery. Plus, they want to choose delivery destinations; in-store, home, work or somewhere else.

To deliver on these expectations, manufacturers, retailers and distribution centres need visibility of stock across all channels and locations for both their staff and customers and to have the logistics in place to physically deliver on orders. Track and

Leaving a legacy behind Managed print services (MPS) are widely used in front offices to maintain printer fleets, control costs and improve productivity yet few warehouse operators consider the concept of MPS for their back office printers to manage barcode and label applications.

They seem happy to invest in newer IT such as ‘click and collect’ enabling technology but resistant to change production area printers. Datatrade is one of the few companies still maintaining legacy warehouse printers when even the OEMs have stopped supporting them!

Some sites have 20-year old printers yet the operations guys are reluctant to upgrade in case something goes wrong and production is adversely affected. There’s almost an attitude of

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Warehousing trace technology like label barcoding is pivotal to this process. Empowering staff with handheld mobile devices like scanners and printers gives them visibility of stock, better communication and connectivity and the means to be more operationally efficient.

The next generation of mobile printers are designed to meet the growing mobility needs of manufacturing, logistics and government organisations.

They can withstand the most demanding of environments and be used for numerous applications like proof of delivery, shipping labels and till receipts.

While such technology increases fulfillment speed, maintaining connectivity is crucial and again MPS minimises downtime therefore reducing costs. Retailers and manufacturers, particularly of perishable foods increasingly require quick fixes - some as short as four hours. Not all appreciate that OEM repair solutions are largely ‘return-to-base’ which proves time consuming and interrupts connectivity.

Again MPS ensures machines are serviced regularly thus pre-empting such scenarios and a supplier like Datatrade can often remotely fix machines thus maximising uptime.

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Brakes chooses MPS The UK’s largest foodservice brand, Brakes, recently awarded a three-year MPS contract to Datatrade. The drive is to improve the operational resilience of its back office printers, thereby increasing warehouse productivity.

Brakes is keen to pre-empt and ultimately eliminate the sort of P1 callouts that prevent it distributing its multi-temperature food to UK pubs, restaurants, hospitals and schools.

Datatrade is doing a comprehensive audit of the existing fleet of nearly 500 industrial printers spread across Brakes’ 74 UK distribution centres. It needs to assess the age and reliability of each device, its function, whether it’s right for the job, all of which will determine which printers are really mission critical in the warehouses.

Once that’s established, Datatrade will know which work processes would be affected if a printer failed and where to build in real resilience.

Brakes has a mix of line thermal and laser printers across its fleet producing vital documents like picking notes, invoices and reports. As part of the MPS contract, Datatrade will help Brakes migrate some of its older,

legacy devices to trial new machines.

Keith Norbury, IS service delivery director at Brakes said of the new contract: ‘Datatrade has a ten-year track record with us so we trust its engineers to maximise our printer availability, critical to ensuring we provide great customer service. Our focus is minimising downtime and we’re confident Datatrade will identify the depots most at risk and develop a support and maintenance strategy to improve our overall operational resilience.” D Peter Laplanche is a director at Datatrade. For over 30 years, manufacturers, retailers and logistics operators have relied on Datatrade to supply, repair and maintain their barcode label printers and scanners.

It has led the field in industrial managed print services (MPS), keeping mission critical printers working with a range of thermal printer services, thereby reducing warehouse downtime and minimising supply chain interruptions. www.datatrade.co.uk

TasteTest Help for hangovers Just in time for Christmas overindulgence, Overhang, a new hangover relief drink, has signed its first partnership deal with UK leading health retailer, Holland & Barrett.

The soft drink, which was is based on a time-old family recipe, contains hangover-relieving properties including milk thistle, raspberry leaf and burdock to aid liver repair, settle the stomach and purify the blood respectively.

Overhang will be available from December 7th in each of the 740 Holland & Barrett stores in the UK, and online from December 1st. www.overhangdrinks.com

The team found that Overhang was refreshing to drink at any time, with or without a hangover. “I would go and buy this if I was suffering from the after effects of a heavy night, as the ginger would be welcome to

Freeze dried fun With many consumers now eating lunch on the go or sat at a desk, the demand for retailers to provide good, wholesome food that is convenient and easy to consume has skyrocketed, and one company thinks that freeze drying could be the answer.

A trend that is already well established in the US and Asia, and amongst breakfast cereal brands, the freeze-drying process extracts solely the water from products. This ensures that almost all of the natural flavours and nutritional content are retained.

calm a queasy stomach,” said one tester. “I like the idea of having this available on the high street,” said another. “Being stocked in Holland and Barrett tells me that it’s good quality, and that would reassure me if I am feeling fragile!”

A bite out of biscuit segment Thorntons has launched a new range of treats that it believes are a perfect fit for the Special Treats segment of the Biscuits category – but wants them to be enjoyed as a treat by consumers every day. A selection of biscuits makes up the launch - Chocolate Caramel Wafer Rolls, Caramel Wafer Rolls, Caramel Squares, Double Chocolate Melts and Mint Chocolate Melts.

The biscuit range is being distributed under license by Lightbody Ventures and the company is confident that the new range will help it take a significant step into a category that is growing and developing.

John Steele, Commercial Controller at Lightbody Ventures highlighted that the range encapsulates the quality of the Thorntons brand and offers consumers a luxurious product that can be enjoyed every day. “It was vital that we created exactly the right product that would make Thorntons stand out in this growing category. The quality and final range of products produced is exactly what we set out to achieve,” he said. www.thorntons.co.uk

Send the FoodChain Testing Team biscuits and you are guaranteed to

see some happy faces. They loved all the new Thorntons range, and it was impossible to choose a favourite, as every taster loved a different one the most! “I will have the last word,” said the Editor. “It was the Mint Chocolate Melts for me – they had the perfect combination of delicious buttery, crumbly biscuit and a thick rich filling, with the mint having just the right amount of zing.

I always have high expectations from Thorntons, and these did not disappoint. These have been a very welcome addition to my tea breaks and I was very sorry when I was told I’d eaten the last one! They definitely wouldn’t last very long in my biscuit jar at home.”

‘Nothing But’ fruit and vegetable snack packs, introduced by The Premium Snack Company, contain freeze dried, 100 per cent fruit and vegetables, equivalent to one portion of the recommended five a day, and are suitable for vegetarians, vegans and gluten-free diets.

Available in six flavours (sliced beetroot and parsnip; pea and sweetcorn; mange tout and red pepper; strawberry and banana; pineapple and grape; and apple and fig), the packs offer a healthy option in a sector traditionally dominated by sweets, crisps and nuts. www.nothingbutsnack.com

“Well, these were a very pleasant surprise,” said one reviewer. “I tried the strawberry and banana option and although the texture was a bit strange to start with, I found them a lovely little sweet nibble!”

The pea and sweetcorn variety was also a winner: “These were full of flavour, the fact they were low in fat was a bonus and I would buy these to have instead of crisps,” said the reviewer. “Getting one of my five a day like this was most enjoyable!”

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Cooking up success Linda Lewis explains why thinking on your feet is the new catering equipment trend

C

atering has always been all about the margin, but what we are seeing in today’s pacy, fast-evolving catering sector is a more creative approach to how to generate the margin, increasingly driven by social and culinary trends. In a world of instant, online food reviews, TV cookery programmes and global travel, the punter’s palate has be pampered and their ego engaged. They want what they want, the way they want it, when they want it and the catering equipment underpinning the delivery of customer satisfaction must respond, if the caterer is to keep their share of the dining out trade.

Catering equipment in 2015 needs to match up to the trends that I call

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the 4 S’s: Speed; Social; Street and Sophistication. Here, we are no strangers to the first. Our Cuppone pizza oven range is all about quick service, cooking pizzas in just a few minutes and keeping those 65 per cent of 18-34 year olds who eat pizza in a restaurant at least monthly, happy. But that figure comes from a 2014 Technomic survey that also highlighted why we are now being forced to adapt and think differently when marketing our pizza oven range. Fifty-five per cent want to build their own pizza, many now want it by the slice and having a half-and-half pizza (sharing two types with a friend) is becoming a norm.

To accommodate this trend of customisation – which can be to the

nth degree - plus the demands of a mushrooming street food sector that feeds on fast service, the equipment is having to become higher-tech. Chefs are now relying more heavily on computercontrolled ovens that can switch themselves on before they arrive for their shift, then multi-task, work on different zonal temperatures and be the final leg of a catering equipment production line that is increasingly automated, from mixing dough, rounding it, flattening it and then delivering it for cooking.

Equipment is also having to become ‘social’. The modern British diner is highly engaged with their food, has become accustomed to watching numerous cookery programmes, virtually interacting with TV chefs, and has an

Catering Equipment interest in food far greater than that of the generations that grew up with food rationing and, consequently, had little passion for food to pass on to their children. The modern diner now desires transparency in the catering process, which means that equipment has to come front of house, where it – and the chefs – can be seen.

If a restaurant wishes to retain the aesthetics of its interior, the equipment has to be sexy, curvy, visually stunning and a centrepiece. Options like the Cuppone Giotto are a classic example of this; the Marilyn Monroe of pizza ovens.

Such equipment is a big investment, but if you buy the best-in-class, it won’t get the seven year itch and pack in on you, before you’ve reaped a reward on your return in investment.

We are already seeing Romagna’s ‘piada’ flatbread introduced to Tesco and piadinerie franchises reaching out to the UK, after around 20 years’ growth in Europe. How long before we see piadina hitting UK menus in a big way – using adapted pizza equipment, to produce the right consistency of product? The message is to look at your catering equipment through the eyes of the consumer and see how it – or a newly purchased piece of kit – could adapt and provide the flexibility that will breathe life into your menu.

It is also becoming imperative for caterers to keep a keen eye on trends.

One of these is the growth in popularity of wood-fired food, particularly pizzas, which has been driven by top Italian chefs, foreign travel and champions

pioneered their introduction. Their impact is tangible.

That brings me to the other key trend in the sector – sophistication. Although ‘fusion’ became a dirty word in the catering industry, it’s back in a different guise and caterers are now recognising the need to have mash-ups of different cuisines, to satisfy the advanced tastes of their diners. This even applies to pizzas.

The tomato-based pizza is now becoming almost old-hat for the sophisticated diner, who wants gourmet options, not toppings like ‘mamma’ used to make.

This is leading to exciting new varieties, such as Prezzo’s ‘Prawn and Lobster Executive Pizza’, with king prawns, lobster, béchamel, grilled courgettes, cherry tomatoes, roasted peppers, red onion, rocket and mozzarella. At other venues,

The trick here is to not succumb to buying equipment that looks pretty, but has no substance. Unfortunately, as the drive to bring all equipment out front gathers speed, some of the old principles of buying on reliability, performance and guaranteed payback, are being lost, thanks to moments of weakness that see the caterer just buying something that will look lovely within their overall interior design scheme.

When it comes to the hunger of the street food market, catering equipment suppliers are having to get cuter. Space is almost always at a premium in a kitchen, so any eatery wishing to run a normal menu alongside a lunchtime street food trade, needs to be creative in its thinking. Ethnic influences are driving much of the street food phenomenon, but preparing naans, or chapatis, can be time-consuming.

Increasingly, ethnic street food caterers have to cross a cultural divide and opt for Italian pizza making equipment, which can easily produce the perfect flatbread, with a slight change of setting and a bit of training. We’ve seen this first hand, assisting a business called Naked Naan, which wished to produce innovative ‘naanwiches’ for the lunchtime street food buyer. Having drawn a blank searching for a solution, they quickly found it by looking to another international cuisine’s equipment range.

Experimentation can drive business.

such as Franca Manca. For this reason, Linda Lewis Kitchens, which has always been a supplier of Cuppone electric and gas pizza ovens, has recently expanded its range to include Valoriani wood-fired pizza ovens. Why? Simply because the evidence was compelling.

A recent YouGov survey showed 27 per cent of British adults now prefer to eat wood-fired food, to barbecued food, at a garden party. Wood-fired ovens have only been in the UK for around ten years, since our partner, Orchard Ovens,

expect chargrilled vegetables on your pizza, slices of beef, hoisin duck, and steamed fennel.

I make this point, because even a traditional pizzeria now needs to think ‘mash-up’ and have the equipment at hand that the customer requires.

Chargrills and vapour grills are rapidly becoming some of the queens of the kitchen, delivering the healthier eating options that health and weight-conscious diners require. Slicers are now in greater demand, to quickly and consistently produce new toppings.

To summarise, catering equipment purchase in 2015 needs careful planning and each item needs to work in harmony and in synchronisation, to deliver a speedy, street-focused, social and sophisticated menu and dining experience. Gone are the days of thinking oven + fryer + grill. That just won’t make the sums any more … or cut the mustard. D Linda Lewis is managing director of Linda Lewis Kitchens, a trusted and innovative importer and supplier of top quality catering equipment, including the Cuppone range of electric and gas pizza ovens from Italy. It has built its reputation on first-class service and after-sales care, the reliability and longevity of its equipment and the provision of solutions for every catering scenario. www.linda-lewis.co.uk

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Looking ahead Ahead of the Packaging Innovations, Empack and Label&Print events, Libbie Hammond caught up with Stuart Kellock, Owner of Label Apeel and Christophe Roucher, European Sales Director at VCG Kestrel to discuss the current trends and issues facing the packaging and labelling sectors

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Labelling LH: What are the most important factors to customers looking for labelling solutions at the moment?

Stuart Kellock

SK: The important factor should be differentiation, whether that is through material, design, shape or colour. Do anything but be different and have a unique personality. ‘Me branding’ is a dead end that erodes profit and revenue, for that reason it should be avoided at all cost. You have to make sure that you look at the market place and understand the spot you are going to fill.

CR: The recent EU-wide reviews for both Food (FIR – Food Information Regulation) and Detergent (CLP – Classification Labelling & Packaging) markets, has really highlighted the need to find more space on labels, to prevent the regulatory aspects prevailing over the brand. This can either be achieved by changing the label structure (larger label, leaflet labels, reverse print), or through digital technology such as QR codes and augmented reality - as we will be presenting during the PI exhibition.

Christophe Roucher

I

nternational buyers and leading decision-makers will be flocking to Packaging Innovations, Empack and Label&Print 2016 to see the most innovative and original suppliers within the packaging industry. The two day event, which takes place on 24 & 25 February at Birmingham’s NEC, is designed to bring together the packaging industry to demonstrate the latest technologies, inspire developments, look at the newest approaches and discover the hottest trends.

In such a fast moving industry it is imperative to stay up-to-date with the very latest in design and technology, and what better place to do this than Packaging Innovations, Empack and Label&Print 2016. Over 350 suppliers, including Fischbein Saxon, Epson, Durst Phototechnik, Label Apeel, Nulogy and Schur Star Systems will be using the show to launch innovations and solutions to the packaging market.

Stuart Kellock is the Owner of Label Apeel. Label Apeel is an award-winning printer offering flexo and digital print and design of self-adhesive labels. The company has encyclopaedic knowledge of what gives a label great shelf appeal and it has an unrivalled reputation for working within the FMCG, retail and beers, wines and spirits sectors.

Christophe Roucher is European Sales Director at VCG Kestrel. With locations around the globe including Prague, LA and Sydney, VCGKestrel provides brand and colour management services to some of the world’s leading brand owners. The company offers a complete range of services from design to print quality management.

LH: What is the biggest challenge to the food and beverage labelling sector?

‘

SK: The biggest challenge of the last 12 months has been keeping on top of legislative changes where labels are concerned. Government is not great at communicating what changes need to happen and in what framework. This

has led to an awful lot of confusion and cost. We work hard to keep on top of legislation and deliver in an understandable way through our Label Geeks blog.

CR: There is no doubt that frequent regulatory changes and tighter controls over legal aspects are an important challenge when it comes to implementation. Customers looking for labelling solutions must keep in mind that regulations will continue to evolve.

Moreover, changes are likely to become more and more frequent, resulting in a complete new environment in terms of finance, risk assessment and timing constraints.

LH: Tell me more about the legislative issues that are demanding changes?

SK: We heard recently about a drive towards it becoming mandatory for nutritional information to go on alcohol.

This is just not true but is a great example of how 2+2 =5. Actually it turns out that one large drinks company has been allowed to put this information on drinks in the States. In the EU, it was being looked at but has hit a brick wall with little appetite to get it moving again.

CR: Legislation is sometimes struggling to cope with fast evolving new technologies such as QR codes, augmented reality and online product databases. These trends are so fast and sometimes unpredictable and creative, that it is difficult, sometimes impossible for the legislator to keep ahead of them.

In such a fast moving industry it is imperative to stay up-to-date with the very latest in design and technology, and what better place to do this than Packaging Innovations, Empack and Label&Print 2016

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Labelling LH: What is the most innovative technology out there at the moment and how does it benefit clients and consumers?

SK: Digital printing is still wowing the market. As with everything there is both good and bad digital print, and clients need to look at the quality of machinery and equipment of their supplier. Clients need to satisfy themselves with regard to colour consistency and definition.

The benefit of digital printing is that it is giving smaller brands the opportunity to compete in terms of on shelf impact with the bigger players, this is driving the trend towards buying local, every town now has its own brewery, every town has a local cheese, meat or coffee supplier.

These local brands look great and this is giving consumer confidence.

LH: Are UK food and drink exporters finding overseas labelling rules a challenge?

SK: Only in the sense that different places do things slightly differently but in reality there is a lot of common ground.

We can help with understanding the differing legislation if people need help.

It is not really knowing about it so much as more to do with finding somewhere to put it all. The back label of any product

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used to be the additional marketing zone, the place people went for supplementary information about the product, that is coming to an end. Now it is the legislative zone and cramming all that information in is getting harder and harder.

CR: The FIR and CLP legislation I have mentioned should result in a

much more harmonised legislative environment. Hopefully this will make it easier for UK food and drink exporters to develop their sales abroad.

Nevertheless, differences persist, such as the ‘food traffic light system’ which is mostly present in the UK but is not part of the EU FIR Regulations. Each market has its own set of specific rules but the trend is for these to be harmonised to standard EU labelling rules.

LH: What is the next trend on the horizon?

SK: For me the continuing localisation of brands has a long way to run. This started its life as a miles to market issue but is now becoming more about the pride people have in where they come from and the produce that comes from there. Where a product comes from is a great story that has a real quality of uniqueness about it and being unique is key to everything.

CR: In the continuity of Pack Copy Management solutions, supplying contextual and appropriate translations, as well as a regulatory approval service, is only a step away. We have already implemented these solutions with some of our clients and demand is likely to continue to develop in the future. D www.labelapeel.co.uk www.vcg-group.com/kestrel

TasteTest Savoury snack Working with leading nutritionists, food technologists and health experts, Calbee UK has created Yushoi Snapea Rice Sticks - a delicious baked bite made using green peas and rice.

The snack, which boasts less than 99 calories, is high in fibre and a source of protein, nut and dairy free, suitable for vegetarians and vegans and has no artificial colours, flavours or MSG. Subtly seasoned in a range of flavours including Soy and Balsamic Vinegar, Smoked Salt and Szechuan Pepper, Sweet Chilli and Lemon and Lightly Salted, the product has been developed to meet the Government’s criteria to encourage better eating habits, make choices simpler and address concerns in relation to obesity throughout the UK. www.Yushoi.co.uk

“If you like Chipsticks, you will like these! The texture was very similar and the salt and vinegar flavour was too – in fact, they made me

Chocolate logic a bit nostalgic,” said one tester. “I love the idea of them being baked and made of rice and peas, as I can treat them like a healthy snack and being wheat free is also a bonus!

“I was really surprised that a pack was less than 99 calories as I thought it was a generous portion and I really enjoyed them. I didn’t feel the lightly salted ones needed other flavours to be honest, as I liked the way I got hints of pea! They’re even recommended to sell at the same price as normal crisps, and if I saw these available, I would choose them over a high fat option.”

How saucy!

John West has enhanced its entire mackerel sauces range with the addition of new foodie variants in a major new push. The new range of seven products consists of Sundried Tomato and Basil, Tomato & Chilli, Dijon Mustard, Teriyaki, Sweet Chilli, Mexican and Korma.

Craig Gidley, John West brand manager, explained that the new flavours are designed to add interest and attract a wider range of consumers. “Mackerel continues to be a popular choice amongst UK consumers not only from a taste and convenience point of view, but also because of its oily fish and Omega 3 health benefits. Dietary recommendations for the general public are to eat at least two portions of fish a week, including a portion of oily fish and this refreshed range should certainly encourage more consumption.” www.john-west.co.uk

who loved the sauces and were very keen to try all the varieties. “This is so convenient for lunch,” said one. “This and some salad or crackers and I’ve got a healthy meal, with good flavour, ease of serving and very little mess!”

“I was surprised by Teriyaki sauce with mackerel – I won’t lie, I wasn’t expecting to like it!” added another. But it was very tasty and such an easy way of getting some oily fish into my diet, which is definitely lacking. A tin of this each week is so easy, and convenient.”

With more and more consumers looking to add a low-calorie sugar alternative into their daily diet, it seems only logical that Chocologic has chosen now to introduce its new range of delicious tasting chocolate that contains ‘No Added Sugar’ and fits into a healthy lifestyle - without compromising on flavour.

What sets Chocologic apart from its competition is the main sweetener alternative – Steviol glycosides, more commonly known as Stevia. It’s a natural sweetener and sugar substitute extracted from the leaves of the plant species, Stevia rebaudiana. The naturally sweet plant extract tastes delicious when combined with the cocoa in the Chocologic range and will appeal to all chocolate lovers.

Another key benefit to Stevia is that it contains absolutely no calories or carbohydrates. Stevia is suitable for diabetics and has been approved by the FDA. Twitter: @Chocol0gic

“I was relieved to see this was sweetened with Stevia, as alternative sugar substances can cause digestive issues with me,” one tester stated. After trying the Milk, Dark and Milk with Hazelnuts varieties, the team decided they liked the Milk option the best. “You can tell that this uses Belgian chocolate and I like that it’s not too sweet,” said another member of the team. Even the Team’s resident chocoholic gave it a thumbs up – trust us - this is very high praise!

These products divided the team into two camps – the mackerel purists, who thought that it should be just in oil and not interfered with, and the enthusiasts,

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Pass or fail E

ven the best innovators have notorious flops: New Coke, Apple Newton, Microsoft Zune, Life Savers Soda, Harley-Davidson Perfume. The good news for enterprises is that some companies can overcome blunders because their sheer size makes them unstoppable market forces - but for others, even a single mishandled launch can threaten company-wide failure.

These risks are even greater for food manufacturers, who face a choice between innovating and insolvency.

They must launch new and iterative products to excite customers and generate new revenue, on a frequent basis. Yet the path to profitable innovation is paved with challenges: tighter launch windows, fickle end consumers and B2B customers within

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the supply chain, volatile market swings, and – increasingly - demands for unique or customised products for a niche market.

At the same time, product development is fundamentally more difficult in process industries. In many instances, decisions are based on molecular-level evaluations well before any customer has a chance to incorporate a new material into their products. For too many firms in this sector, years of internal research and testing lead to product launches that meet with lukewarm success - and negligible profits. Equally damaging are the great ideas that aren’t pursued, leaving incalculable profits unrealised.

As a result, process manufacturing executives in the food industry are rethinking how they develop and launch

Innovating to succeed in food manufacture and beyond

new products, to minimise risks and maximise profits. The key is to start by defining their requirements for new products, typically defined in the impact upon the market: • Exciting the market with a game changing innovation, usually requires the longest time to market, greatest costs, and greatest risks - but also the largest potential profits.

• Making the market with new products in an existing category is often the result of innovations requested by customers. As a result there is a better chance of market acceptance, but the approach still entails considerable risk (and opportunity).

• Moving the market via iterations, renovations, and maintenance of existing goods offers lower risk, but also lower potential profits.

Process Solutions • Catching up to the market by copying what competitors have already launched, competing for a piece of market share is usually the tactic of last resort. It is not a good place to be with regard to risk or profits; and savvy leaders avoid this position, if at all possible.

Once a market approach has been identified, food manufacturers must evaluate the proposed products across a range of metrics, including: • Costs: ingredients, research and development, production, marketing, and distribution/logistics all add to the initial cost of a new product, often long before revenue will be generated.

• Specifications: These may arise from not only the customer, but also industry, government, and local requirements and demands for compliance.

• Capacity: Does the manufacturer have the facilities, equipment, and corporate knowledge needed to deliver the new product in line with the above?

• Performance: The quality, safety, and time to develop and produce the new product will be just as important as levels of sales.

• Profitability is the defining metric of success – if the new product has not delivered increased profits, it will likely have to be significantly changed or retired.

The overwhelming challenge for food manufacturers is that these factors are not fixed in time. Each factor can change as a product is designed and produced, which then impacts all the other factors. For example, an existing blending operation (capacity) may require an upgrade (costs) to accommodate new ingredients, yet doing so may also impact the speed of production (for better or worse) and characteristics of the product itself (quality and regulatory compliance).

Savvy executives rely on a ‘phased’ or ‘staged’ approach to development, in which innovations are sequenced with specific ‘Go’ or ‘No go’ decision points.

The phased approach A staged approach to product development isn’t new, but new information technologies can make

these approaches dramatically smarter and faster. Improved data allows process manufacturers to quantify the costs of innovation, assess product performance and market potential, and project the time required for launch, as well as profitability at each stage of development. Executives can be confident in their decisions to proceed or not - and give their products the best chance for market success.

A common staged approach involves five progressions: 1. Ideation: Will there be demand for the product? Does the company need the product to re-energise a tired portfolio or is it an entirely new market? Will new ingredients transform an existing product? Can we leverage raw materials in new ways?

2. Define the product: Engineers scope product characteristics such as formula, usage, appearance, and properties. Where possible, marketers re-assess revenue potential based on the product’s preliminary design. The emergent field of simulation enables many businesses to digitally experiment at this point, offering substantial savings against physical prototype development.

3. Create a product plan: Engineers now plan production. Do we have the assets to produce (plants, equipment)? Can we source materials? How long will it take to go from development and testing to production and market? How does the business best package and distribute the product?

4. Prove the product: This stage is highly quantitative, driven by R&D models, prototypes, and trial batches. Early perceptions based on prototypes are gathered from customers, and engineers run experiments to digitally or physically validate their pre development theories. This testing also refines cost estimates: Can we profitably source, make, and distribute? A ‘Go’ decision at this point can commit substantial resources to the project as it triggers a handoff from development to production, and alerts all support functions (procurement,

marketing, finance) to prepare for launch.

5. Make and deliver: Production begins with initial batches compared to design specifications for quality, regulatory compliance, etc. Is the product in the plant the same as the one we designed?

Can we efficiently make full production runs of high-quality product?

Ongoing reviews of market reaction (do customers like it?) and research into product characteristics under market conditions (does it retain quality and safety characteristics?) drive additional development decisions.

A staged approach to process industry product development improves the likelihood that a sellable, profitable, highquality product hits the market on time because the ideas for the product and its manufacture have already undergone significant, but controlled evolution. This allows executives to re-evaluate product concepts as they become more refined, within a context of real-time business conditions. And by incorporating the latest information technologies with integrated stage-gate functionality - to evaluate product parameters, digitally model product features, assess market trends, and analyse emerging ideas - they do so at a pace that today’s markets require. Lastly, it ensures that product development knowledge is captured throughout the process, whether the product is developed or not. The benefits are big for one product - and are dramatic for a company with a portfolio of evolving products. D With 13,000 employees and customers in more than 200 countries and territories, Infor builds software that automates critical processes for industries including healthcare, manufacturing, fashion, wholesale distribution, hospitality, retail, and public sector.

Infor applications deliver a user experience that is fun and engaging while helping eliminate the need for customisation through embedded deep industry domain. Infor deploys its applications primarily on the Amazon Web Services cloud and open source platforms. www.infor.com

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Trace for life Jack Payne says that everyone knows traceability systems trace products from farm to fork but asserts these systems are capable of so much more

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s a food manufacturer/ packager/distributor, it is your responsibility to give consumers, retailers, certification boards, and government agencies a view of the journey, all the way back to its origins. While traceability information is crucial in the event of a food-related recall or outbreak, it’s becoming more important in our customer-centric world for consumers to have confidence that both foodsafety prevention and response do not get overlooked. In today’s high-speed and connected business environment, consumers and manufacturers across the supply chain can agree upon these things: the need for stronger brand

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protection, more awareness, and better control.

FSMA - trust the food on your plate With the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) on the horizon, traceability helps manufacturers meet the requirements for rapid and thorough tracking. The CDC estimates 48 million people per year are being affected by foodborne illnesses, making food safety of utmost importance to consumers and companies within the food industry. FSMA has become the primary driver for improved traceability in the food industry, affirming the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 - anyone playing a role in the food supply chain

Jack Payne

must identify where the product was received and to where it was shipped, so that in the event of a food-safety event, public health can be better protected.

Part of the proactive stance FSMA is taking toward food safety means food manufacturers need to continue to review their own traceability capabilities.

Although many companies have exceptional internal traceability controls, data often cannot be easily shared externally with partners, customers, and suppliers. FSMA is requiring food sectors to incorporate a major traceability imitative in order to meet government regulations and build relationships - giving them the ability to trust and understand what they are eating.

Traceability

Manual data collection and its risk for error Food safety is all about prevention – recall prevention, brand reputation destruction prevention, etc. – as well as response. Beyond prevention and simply having the ability to effectively track recalled products, traceability solutions also play a key role in data collection, thus affecting the overall timeliness of your response. If your company is recording all of its production information manually and keying it into a system, there is the obvious chance for human error. Data collection with bar code scanning within the traceability solution increases the accuracy and timeliness of transactions.

For example, ABC Meat Processing is looking to find cost-savings opportunities with its traceability solution. Immediately after implementation, the company begins using data collection. Very early on, ABC Meat Processing realises it has been spending years pulling the wrong meat for a particular product. Along with using the wrong meat type, the company was sending incorrectly priced meats to consumers, costing the company a significant amount of money. With the real-time validation of information data collection provided, ABC Meat Processing was able to begin processing the correct meat, using the right ingredients to meet customer requirements.

Traceability also supports faster response times. As a spice manufacturer, your company makes spices for other food manufacturers. Your company ships a truckload of salt to several different customers. Your company has put together a small team to manually record all of the tracking and tracing information. Recording this information takes approximately half a day - for viewing, reporting, etc… With the average eight hour business day, assuming there are no meetings or other time commitments or perhaps a lunch break in the way, a half a day is approximately four hours. That puts you barely within the four-hour guideline the FDA allows.

With a traceability solution compiling and sorting the data for you, this same tracking and tracing information is recorded within minutes. As new government regulations, such as FSMA, are causing guidelines to tighten up, it’s crucial to report accurate tracking and tracing information within the given timeframe.

Product recalls are sometimes beyond your control Let’s say all tracking and tracing is done properly and everything is being documented within your company’s traceability system. But, even with every precaution taken within your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, sometimes things happen beyond your control that can trigger a recall. That’s where traceability becomes your best friend, providing the tools needed to track a product - or products - all the way back to square one. This allows for an effectively

managed recall process and getting back to putting quality products on the shelves.

What should I ask of a traceability solution?

Knowing what’s in food and where it comes from sounds simple enough. However, food traceability requires consistent standards and adequate technology in our evolving world.

A traceability solution must be designed to trace products/lots quickly and easily.

Having a graphical view of data enables easy interpretation of even the most-complex process and provides comprehensive data for all relevant areas.

With traceability implemented within your company’s ERP solution, you should be able to immediately answer these questions: • Where are my products?

• Where, when, and in what quantities were my products produced?

• Which ingredients and processes were used to make these products?

• What quality-assurance data is available for each of my products?

• Where, when, and in what quantities were the products shipped to/from?

• Who supplied the raw ingredients and when?

• Were the raw ingredients used in any other products?

Viewing traceability information, at both a high level and a more drilled-down version, allows you to understand the entire supplychain process from receipt of raw materials to shipment to customers and all points in between. Selecting a technology and system to manage the supply chain for food and food ingredients is an important decision. Having an effective traceability solution in place enables your business to better understand, prepare for, and exceed both regulatory compliance and customer satisfaction. D Jack Payne is the Vice President of Solution Consulting for Process Manufacturing at Aptean. With over 22 years of experience in the ERP industry, Jack is a noted expert in food safety, traceability technology, and the role of technology to effectively automate the food recall process. Aptean helps businesses profit, innovate and grow where the work gets done - in the call centre, on the factory floor, at the end of the assembly line. www.aptean.com/uk

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s n e i a t t h t a p e r o m u M mi e r p

McDonald’s’ commitment to responding to market trends has resulted in the company maintaining its golden crown as a leader in gastronomy, not only in Germany but across the globe 28 www.foodchainmagazine.com

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t has been a rapid period of growth and success for McDonald’s Germany since its first restaurant in Germany opened on December 4th 1971.

Reaching the one billion mark in sales for the first time in 1989, McDonald’s Germany opened its 1000th restaurant in 1999 and continued with further major developments; these include the induction of a new era of marketing with the ‘Ich liebe es’ (‘I’m Lovin’ it’ in English) slogan in 2003 and a new line of high quality, fresh products such as salads and fruit bags in 2004.

As customers became increasingly more aware of the importance of

nutritional value in foods, McDonald’s across the world rolled out packaging with information on the nutritional value of each product; it further proved its ability in listening to market trends by launching almost 500 McCafé across Germany by 2008. Indeed, the McCafé development is the result of intensive market research, which showed an avenue for McDonald’s to target specific consumers by offering high quality coffee that is served by well-trained café staff in a café style environment.

McDonald’s Germany

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This hunger to meet the changing needs of its clients has proven highly beneficial to the growth of McDonald’s in Germany, with 1475 restaurants and 862 McCafé now open in the country and approximately 58,000 employees working in them. “Our first

restaurant opened in Munich 1971 we have had an intense development in this country. And there is still room for more McDonald’s restaurants; Particularly interesting are locations at airports, railway or motorway stations, as mobility is an important factor in

Germany. Therefore we have begun a major co-operation with Autobahn Tank and Rast GmbH to build more than 100 restaurants in motorway service stations at key positions across Germany,” begins Phillipp Wacholz, Director of Corporate Affairs at McDonald’s Germany.

‘

The franchisee

is a strong

part of the

McDonald’s

success. They are participating in the whole strategic process and helping to reach the important milestones

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McDonald’s Germany Announced in 2015, the co-operation agreement between Autobahn Tank & Rast GmbH and McDonald’s Germany will enable Tank & Rast to open more than 100 restaurants under the McDonald’s brand at motorway service areas. While the first new restaurant units are expected to open by the end of 2015, the majority of the new restaurants will open between 2016 and 2019.

Franchise approach The opening of these restaurants is a continuing trend in Germany, as more than 85 per cent of the 1475 restaurants operated in the country are operated as medium-sized enterprises by independent franchisees on their own account and risk. As part of the company’s Franchisee Leadership Council (FLC), the franchisees are involved in the strategic development of McDonald’s and also have an advisory role. Meanwhile, as a franchisor,

McDonald’s Germany creates the right conditions to ensure the success of the entire system; this includes the provision of convincing marketing concepts, central purchasing, quality assurance, jointly supported investment decisions and ensuring the qualified care of franchisees during business operations.

The franchisee is a strong part of the McDonald’s success. They are participating in the whole strategic process and helping to reach the important milestones. One example is the ‘restaurant of the future’, developing a new restaurant experience for our guests,” explains Philipp Wachholz.

As the Big Mac’s global success and the dramatic expansion of McCafé proves, product development is an integral part of McDonald’s success.

Keen to continue this trend, McDonald’s Germany began serving burgers with 100 per cent organic beef as part of a trial promotion that will last from

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McDonald’s Germany 3M 3M is a global innovation company that never stops inventing. Over the years, our innovations have improved daily life for hundreds of millions

Germany and Austria, the McB. is in an attempt to appeal to customers that are more conscious about where their meals come from.

of people all over the world. We have made driving

Top quality

at night easier, made buildings safer, and made

Alongside the McB., the company also launched a new member of the Premium Clubhouse family in 2015, the Veggie Clubhouse. Focused on delivering quality, McDonald’s has created a new vegetarian burger comprised of nutty quinoa and grilled peppers, with special house sauce, double cheese, fresh red onion rings and crispy bionda lettuce. “People want high quality, which is something that played a really important role with our Bacon Beef Clubhouse, Bacon Chicken Clubhouse and Veggie Clubhouse. To ensure top quality ingredients we have long-term relationships with most of our suppliers, which means we have developed trust that our supply chain is

consumer electronics lighter, less energy-intensive and less harmful to the environment. We even helped put a man on the moon. Every day at 3M, one idea always leads to the next, igniting momentum to make progress possible around the world.

October 1st – November 18th 2015.

“Organic or vegetarian foods are a big trend in Germany so we responded to our customer requests with this burger with 100 per cent organic beef, the Limited Edition McB., which has been one of the biggest product launches for years for McDonald’s in Germany,” says Philipp Wachholz. Made with organic beef sourced from organic farms in

strong and protected. We also work with suppliers to find out trends and are always trying to increase our regional sourcing as this is a big trend in Germany too. We already source over 90 per cent of our beef in Germany,” says Philipp Wachholz.

Ever watchful of market developments, McDonald’s Germany is also looking into individualism and digital developments to further maintain a competitive edge; “We want to be a modern, progressive and sustainable burger company, which means having consistently high quality in our product range while also working on a good value offer that is easy for customers to understand. We also want to continue connecting with our target groups, which for McDonald’s is first of all families, while also working on new service offers that will please our customers’ needs in the future.

These are the four most important points for the ongoing success of McDonald’s Germany,” concludes Phillip Wachholz. D www.mcdonalds.de

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Going glocal Created from a merger between three leading hotel brands in 2006, FRHI Hotels & Resorts is undergoing a major food venture across the group to ensure consistency in the quality of food offered, while also ensuring each hotel provides guests with unique experience 34 www.foodchainmagazine.com

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hen Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Raffles Hotels & Resorts and Swiss么tel Hotels & Resorts united under the same banner of FRHI Hotels & Resorts in 2006, a new global force in the hospitality market was born. Today the Toronto headquartered global hotel and management company boasts more than 130 hotels and branded residential offerings in 34 countries; located in financial centres, gateway cities and sought-after resort locales, FRHI has 46 hotels in the Americas, 25 in Europe, 27 in the Asia Pacific region and 19 in the MEA.

Martin Jones

Although the merger is relatively recent, the history of FRHI dates as far back as the late 19th Century when legendary hotels such as the Fairmont Banff Springs and Raffles Singapore began welcoming guests. Entrenched in a tradition of luxury and sophistication, these two hotel brands may have their similarities, however, they both naturally also have their own unique style and strengths. For example, Raffles represents an oasis for the well-travelled and offers sophisticated luxury with residential charm; at its renowned hotels in locations such as Dubai, Singapore and Paris, a personal and

FRHI Hotels & Resorts

discreet service is provided. Meanwhile, Fairmont offers a sense of heritage and sophistication, with a warm personal service provided to guests. Notable hotels within Fairmont’s portfolio include the Plaza in New York and London’s The Savoy. Operating alongside these two brands is Swissôtel, which is well known for genuine hospitality mixed with service efficiency; notable hotels within the brand’s range include Swissôtel Tallinn and Swissôtel The Bosphorous.

Offering a distinctive portfolio of luxury and upscale hotels through its three different yet complementary hotel brands, FRHI’s vision is to be the world’s

‘preferred hospitality company’, as such, the company focuses on providing each guest with a unique and unforgettable travel experience. One integral part of ensuring this vision becomes a success is the delivery of high quality food that also provides the guest with a unique ‘glocal’ experience, as Martin Jones, Vice President of Food and Beverage in Europe at FRHI Hotels & Resorts, explains: “Of course we cater to the needs of our guests with a breakfast, lunch and dinner requirement, however, we believe that the key to attracting guests is through catering to the local people. So what do the locals want? To

find this out we look at the local needs and the dining habits in the area; we also find out if there is a need for a specific type of cuisine or restaurant such as Chinese, Italian or Vietnamese to drive the local business. Ultimately, if locals are seen eating in the hotel we believe this will draw in our guests as well.”

Currently focused on a major food venture that will ensure consistency across the three brands while also maintaining the individuality of each hotel, FRHI is keen to develop its global initiative with local applications, as Martin notes: “It has to be ‘glocal’. Because we are three brands we have a certain market position

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FRHI Hotels & Resorts and certain standards that must be maintained, but we also want to be locally applicable with the foods we provide.

By this I mean that there are common items that are served across the globe, whether you are in England, America or China; items that guests expect wherever they are in the world include the Caesar salad, the hamburger or even pasta and bakery items. There are also items such as cocktails, coffee and tea presentations that people expect, so we try to standardise these items so expectations are met across the board.”

A core part of the glocal strategy for FRHI is its relationship with local farmers and suppliers, which provides local customers and guests with confidence that they are receiving an authentic culinary experience. Moreover, the company applies international foods, recipes and trends to menus that are created with local produce while also researching the origin of classic food products to ensure customers enjoy a legitimate food product of optimum quality. “Our goal is to achieve customer expectations with regards to quality and style. Authenticity is important to us, so we tend to research the origins of items on our menu by questioning, for example, where the Caesar salad came from and what ingredients were originally in it. This ensures consistency and individuality in our ingredients across all of our hotels,” highlights Martin.

Alongside local meals and more generic menu items, FRHI has also

been looking to enhance the quality level of its bakery items in line with increased demand within this area.

“Bakery is a huge thing for us, so we try to standardise certain recipes and also work with third parties who

produce breads and bakery items for the hotels where we don’t produce our own. It really is about working across the board so the quality is consistently excellent anywhere our guests are in the world. It is a challenge, but we are in the process of implementing standards of menu parameters and standard recipes.

Although we generally communicate in English, we can translate if necessary, but we also use pictures to provide a visual representation of what guests and locals can expect,” says Martin.

“As you know, we tend to eat with our eyes so if the food doesn’t look appealing that will put people off straight away.

Because of this, we want to provide food that is not only visually appealing, but also tastes great and is consistent in the level of quality. By driving forward this positive experience we are certain to gain repeat business from satisfied customers,” he concludes. D www.frhi.com

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A service provider With a long history in providing services within the cleaning, property, matt services and canteen industries, Elite Service Partner has a proven track record in providing solutions to clients across a host of market sectors

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ince the company was founded as a one-man business in Høvik, Norway, Elite Service Partner AS has grown into one of the country’s largest services companies, today employing some 2700 people. Over the past three decades the business has grown into a significant market player with services applied within a number of market sectors, as Marketing Manager, Odd Kristian Pedersen reveals: “Elite Service

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Partner today has a healthy economy, a modern profile and devoted employees.

Cleaning is our main business, however the company has in recent years also become a major participant in other areas such as facility management, canteen services and concrete floor grinding. These services are provided to clients operating within both the private and public sectors.”

Within the canteen services sector Elite Service Partner employs skilled

Elite Service Partner

chefs and confectioners that undertake day-to-day catering services as well as specialist banquet events. The company follows and understands new trends in modern eating and turns this knowledge into a tangible and real benefit for its clients. Elite Service Partner staff members are regular attendees of company and industry courses to ensure that the business is at the cutting edge of inspiration and innovation in delivering new and appealing dishes.

For Elite Service Partner, no requirement for service is too large or too small. Within the canteen sector the company provides services according to two distinctive business models, comprised of a conveyance system in which stock is provided to and owned by the clients and a commercial system, where canteen services are provided according to the restaurant principle.

This has allowed Elite Service Partner to provide full canteen services, coupled with cleaning solutions, to Posten Norge ASA throughout Norway.

Furthermore the company also serves all of the canteens owned by Dnb ASA outside of Oslo and Bergen. In recent months the company has renewed an important contract with the Norwegian Nurse Association to operate a noncommercial canteen, giving Elite Service Partner the opportunity to design better services and products that are tailored to the end user.

Bespoke solutions The delivery of tailored modern canteen solutions that are implemented according to the unique requirements of the client represents a key strategy for Elite Service Partner in the way it approaches new and existing business.

“When we enter into a new canteen, we try to tailor the canteen product based on what we believe the customers

are looking for while trying to adapt the product in relevance to the diner’s age, sex and industry type,” Odd Kristian says. “For example the Oslo Turn canteen has service users who are young people of both sexes that want sushi and healthy food, while the canteens of Norway’s Mantena rolling stock maintenance company are visited mainly by men with an average age of 55, thus there exists a completely different expectation to the services required in the Oslo Turn canteen.”

The delivery of turnkey and tailored solutions to clients operating within a broad spectrum of industry sectors throughout Norway gives Elite Service Partner a real competitive edge in the canteen service industry. This expertise extends to its cleaning, property and matt services and is further expanded through good dialogue with clients and continually looking forward for new ideas and solutions. By delivering a dedicated and expert level of service, Elite Service Partner is keen to strengthen and expand its presence within the canteen sector and further establish itself as a market leader.

“We are currently a small canteen supplier and we must ‘work smart’ to be able to retain our existing contracts. We are aware that it can be hard to retain contracts after the initial agreement has expired and the canteen goes back out to tender.

This is due to very challenging pricing competition and further demonstrates the

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‘

need to focus on developing concepts rather than selling ‘standard’ canteens,” Odd Kristian explains. “In all of the areas in which we operate, we focus on competitively reasonable pricing, trusted and innovative suppliers and skilled employees.”

Expert knowledge

Elite Service Partner

The close relationships that Elite Service Partner maintains with is network of suppliers represents a further stand in differentiating the business as a market leader

The close relationships that Elite Service Partner maintains with is network of suppliers represents a further stand in differentiating the business as a market leader. Presently the company enjoys strong relationships with trusted industry players including Engrosfrukt AS, Asko Norge, Grillstad, Vestfoldfugl, Kristiania brød Gourmet AS, Ecolab and Orkla Norge. In addition to its existing network of suppliers, Elite Service Partner has recently partnered with Jørn Odden of Wholesale Fruit AS as part of its recently renewed agreement with the Norwegian Nurse Association. This new

collaboration will allow Elite Service Partner to continue to deliver a quality tailored solution, while further expanding its expertise within the canteen sector.

“Jørn Odden has expert knowledge in areas that will be useful in helping us to develop our in-house knowledge,” Odd Kristian says. “The agreement will introduce further product development and training at the salad bar and in hot food, as well as a regular vegetable vendor that delivers to all of our customers nationally.”

Over the coming years, Elite Service Partner will continue to champion unique

tailored solutions while seeking to expand its presence within the canteen segment of the business, as well as in its cleaning, matt and property services. “We need to shift our focus and make conscious choices regarding whether we want to pursue commercial canteen solutions and if we do this, how we can adapt to the needs of both the client and the canteen users,” Odd Kristian details. “Therefore we will work more with our canteen product and the training of our own employees.

Loyalty to the company’s clients and its staff members is very important.” D www.elite.as

FoodChain THE BUSINESS OF FOOD AND DRINK

Boss Europe AS Boss Europe AS congratulates Elite Service Partner’s programme of aircraft

To advertise in FoodChain magazine please contact:

cleaning.

The expansion of Elite Service Partner to include aircraft cleaning via the newly created company Airport & Aviation Services Norway AS means stability and growth for Boss Europe AS. Boss Europe AS has a large network of suppliers who are ready to assist Elite Service Partner with new missions.

It looks forward to an exciting time with Elite Service Partner and looks forward to further co-operation.

Congratulations.

Sales Manager Joe Woolsgrove jwoolsgrove@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Rob Wagner rwagner@schofieldpublishing.co.uk T: +44 (0)1603 274130 | F: +44 (0)1603 274131 www.foodchainmagazine.com

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Legendary luxury

Celebrating 90 years of making luxury chocolates in 2016, Godiva continues to deliver innovative, quality chocolate creations to its customers, while also maintaining its tradition for providing Belgian savoir-faire

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Godiva

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iewed as a symbol of luxury and prestige the world over, Godiva is a truly global brand with outlets in more than 100 countries across all five continents; not only sold online, its products are available from more than 650 boutiques, as well as department and specialist stores in the travel retail sector. By operating from two factories based in Belgium and the US, the company guarantees that the same level of quality is supplied across Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia as the same stringent quality guidelines are adhered to in both locations.

“Since its creation in Brussels in 1926, Godiva Chocolatier has established a worldwide reputation for innovation and excellence,” begins Laurence Koutny, Global PR Director at Godiva. “Inspired by the passion, generosity and pioneering spirit of its namesake, Lady Godiva, the Master Chocolatiers at Godiva continue to push the boundaries of their art, bringing chocolate lovers the most indulgent and exciting new tastes and flavours.”

Indeed, taking its name from the legend of Lady Godiva, who won the hearts of many when she rode on horseback through the streets of Coventry, in protest of her husband’s excessive taxations ‘clad in nought’ but her long tresses. Godiva chocolates symbolise the generosity, style and boldness of this legendary woman.

Winning the hearts of those who taste the delicious chocolates, Godiva has gained a loyal customer base over the last nine decades that seeks refined and indulgent treats all year round. Key to maintaining the interest of its wide reaching consumers is the company’s dedication to mixing innovation with tradition, as Laurence notes: “We are always seeking to create new masterpieces from the finest of ingredients, and because of this Godiva’s products have become synonymous with exceptional innovation and refinement, while always remaining true to their impressive Belgian heritage.”

Playing an integral role in this integration of the traditional and modern are Godiva’s Chef Chocolatiers; much like the Belgian founders of Godiva before them, the Chef Chocolatiers are inspired by the qualities of Lady Godiva and strive to keep her evocative image at the heart of chocolate creations. Naturally, over the last nine decades the company has evolved, with the chefs too being influenced by trends in areas such as consumer expectations, different cultures and gastronomy.

Chocolate masterpieces Adding fresh excitement to the classic Godiva experience, the Chef Chocolatiers are continually challenged to create masterpieces, which ensure each individual handcrafted Godiva chocolate offers a delicious delight for the senses. “Godiva naturally recruits chefs with culinary expertise, but beyond that, it seeks chocolatiers who like to push boundaries; the chefs must be innovative, creative and have a genuine passion for their art. We have chefs based around the world with European roots who always bring the Belgian savoir-faire and discipline into

the local development,” says Laurence.

Like all ranges within Godiva’s product portfolio, the Chef Chocolatiers strive to create something unique yet relevant to the occasion with the company’s new Christmas range, which this year includes Christmas Chocolate Assortments, Christmas Hampers and the Kids Christmas Collection. “Godiva’s Christmas Collection includes a luxurious 20 piece box that is filled to the brim with both signature and festive chocolates; this year our Chef Chocolatier’s role was to create two new limited edition pieces for inclusion in this assortment box. The Christmas Collection also includes a sumptuous 12 piece truffle box, a frivolous and fun advent calendar; an elf-adorned pouch; a beautiful star-themed gift box and the iconic Godiva Ballotin box,” explains Laurence.

She continues: “The elf-adorned pouch has been created with children in mind and is bursting with individually wrapped, melt-in-the-mouth squares of smooth milk chocolates. Decorated with gold stars and Christmas elves, the pouch is great as a gift for sharing or to pop in a child’s stocking. Meanwhile the advent calendar for 2015 has a similar packaging design to the pouch; these fun, frivolous and

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Godiva BDMO Create a lasting impression with packaging from BDMO. Over 25 years of experience has made us the market leader in the Benelux region for luxury cardboard packaging for cosmetics, chocolate, gifts ... Our in-house total concept is your guarantee of full quality control. Our R&D department will examine new developments for your custom packaging. Our expertise and high-tech equipment means that our packaging is robust, sustainable and stylish and suitable for any content. Contact us for advice tailored to your needs.

festive boxes are filled with a selection of signature Godiva classics and a range of Christmas characters in dark, milk and white chocolate. The spirit of the collection is celebratory, magical and captures the spirit of a special occasion.”

Crafted by hand

WDS New approaches for the production of chocolate confectionery: Unlimited variety with WDS production lines.

Winkler und Dünnebier Süßwarenmaschinen (WDS) is one of the global manufacturers of confectionery machines at the same as being a leading specialist for chocolate moulding equipment.

One such chocolate product is large hollow chocolate figures, which now find their ways into the market shelves again, as the festive season starts. For the conventional production of hollow figures, WDS offers spinning lines and equipment for the skilful decoration of certain areas such as eyes or noses.

But also the cold stamping process FSC (Flash Shell Cooling) is a very effective alternative for the production of hollow figures. In comparison to traditional spinning lines it offers the advantage that downtimes outside seasonal production can be compensated by the production of other products, such as chocolate bars, pralines or tablets.

Apart from using the FSC technology, classical chocolate pralines with a shell and a filling are

Alongside these gifts for children are the Christmas boxes, which offer a more sophisticated option that is certain to add an air of indulgence to any celebration. “Inspired by Christmas ornaments and baubles, the design for the Christmas boxes was created as a whimsical reflection of seasonal enchantment. Lovingly arranged into lustrous rose red, lush green and majestic gold packaging, the festive boxes are finished with hand tied silk ribbons. Charming and luxurious, the collection will serve as both a breathtaking gift for others, or a tempting treat for chocolate lovers seeking yuletide self-indulgence,” highlights Laurence.

“We also offer bespoke hampers that are brown leather hat boxes filled to the brim with a selection of the finest Godiva chocolate gifts. This is an offering for more than one person and is a truly magnificent present to give and receive.”

As previously mentioned, Godiva’s Chef Chocolatiers not only worked tirelessly to create these festive treats for its customers, but also developed two limited edition, brand new pieces

exclusively for this year’s Christmas collection. “The two brand new pieces include a dark chocolate with raspberry and a rich milk chocolate ‘Vanuatu’ ganache,” says Laurence.

Differentiating itself through continuous innovation and the development of new and exciting culinary delights, Godiva is proud to lead the way in luxury when it comes to crafting chocolate. Although it has invested in new machinery to ensure it can keep up with global demand, Godiva maintains a level of commitment to craftsmanship and attention to detail and to this day still finishes certain chocolate pieces by hand.

With Christmas coming up, Godiva anticipates a busy period as customers seeking luxury and exceptional tasting chocolate gifts find what they are looking for in this upmarket and quality conscious company. “Godiva’s Christmas Collections are always successful. We believe this is because our pieces feel luxurious and indulgent and at Christmas time, people feel they deserve a special treat; our chocolate also makes for quite a prestigious gift,” Laurence concludes. D www.godivachocolates.co.uk

made by traditional shell forming and a following filling depositor or all in one, with the WDS One-Shot or even Triple-Shot technology.

In this connection, WDS supplied only recently a modern One-Shot production line for various chocolate pralines to Godiva Chocolatier in Belgium.

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An excellent offering E

It’s not just an exemplary approach to a quality product range that secures Balticovo’s continued success, but also its unique ability to listen and adapt to varied and ever changing demands in its individual markets 46 www.foodchainmagazine.com

stablished in 1972 as a state owned poultry farm and becoming 100 per cent privately owned in 1994, Latvian-based egg producer Balticovo has grown considerably to become the largest of its kind in Northern Europe.

With around 250 people currently employed, the company’s 2.6 million laying hens produce 1.7 million eggs a day and 600 million a year, allowing Balticovo to provide a diverse and market specific offering to its domestic and export markets, to which 70 per cent of its total sales can attributed. As a by-product of its own feed production, the company is also a major producer of rapeseed oil in Baltics.

Since last being featured in FoodChain back in 2011, Balticovo has made significant leaps forward in expanding its global footprint and product range. “Two major investments have been into building the boiled egg plant and rapeseed oil pressing facility,” begins Commercial Director, Toms Auskaps. “Both facilities really help to broaden our spectrum of production abilities. For instance, we have started producing mayonnaise and this concept came from the fact that we are a unique company producing the two main

ingredients – eggs and oil – and this allows us to produce using fresh eggs, as opposed to powder. So far we have a normal and low fat option being supplied to food producers as an ingredient, but developing and investing for retail channels is something that we may consider as we move forward.”

Other product developments have been into liquid egg products, with Balticovo launching a range of unique products into this segment. “We have developed the portfolio with a defined strategy in place to provide the final customer with high convenience and ready-to-use products,” explains Toms.

“As such, we are very proud of our food technologists who have made a revolutionary liquid pancake mix, which has a 30 per cent egg content and uses rice flour to make them gluten free.

Recently, this recipe has been further adapted with the addition of whipping cream, which makes the mix lactose free as well. In the same range we have also launched a liquid egg white product, which we have made available through retail channels in line with the growing healthy-eating trend towards low fat, high protein products. As well as this we have also developed a scrambled egg mix for the foodservice industry.”

With a growing product range and a strong export reputation across the Baltic regions, Scandinavia, as well as other key markets across Europe, the Middle East and US, Balticovo has established a particular strength in its flexibility. “We consider this to be a core pillar of the company,” Toms says. “It is our ability to apply different strategies to different market segments and different parts of the world. With a very professional sales team we have long-standing client relationships and dedicated people who understand the individual nuances of local markets.

Therefore, we are incredibly market sensitive and able to react quickly and effectively to changing market conditions and local demands.”

One example of this ability came with the recent avian influenza crisis in the usually self-sufficient US, which forced the country to open up its import channels for egg products. “We limited our export to the US to 20 per cent of

Balticovo our total production as we didn’t want to lose focus of our core markets and we know US egg market fluctuation is only going to be temporary, but we were able to react to this demand gap effectively,” outlines Toms. “By thinking ahead in this respect we have been able to make the most of this boom in exports and gained a lot of experience.”

Balticovo’s reaction to help fill the demand gap is not only testament to its market flexibility, but also its high quality standards.

“In food production quality is one of the most important issues to pay continued focus to,” Toms continues.

“We manage this from start to finish, across a number of areas and implement continuous improvement practices to ensure quality is the very best it can be.

attention to the human element, making sure we have the best veterinary services and technicians maintaining the health of the birds. This of course is followed by high levels of inspection and quality control throughout the processing of eggs and associated products and on into logistics. We understand that without this focus on quality and continuous improvement there is no future for us retaining our strong positions across the globe.”

Looking ahead Balticovo looks to continue the progress it is making with a diversified product portfolio in order to expand its market footprint. Already well established in the Baltic countries, it is making efforts to strengthen its position in Scandinavia where it has already established a good reputation for quality

It starts off with the grain and our longstanding experience in feed production that allows us to provide the best raw materials to our hens. Secondly, we pay

products. Elsewhere, the company is looking further afield into the emerging consumer markets of the Far East, the Middle East and Africa and exploring

opportunities for adding value to those individual markets. Ultimately, a continued commitment to listening to its markets, providing quality, innovative products and continuing its strategy to improve across all processes is key to Balticovo building on its history of success and becoming a major player in the global market. D www.balticovo.lv

RATIONAL RATIONAL develops and manufactures labelling machines and inkjets specifically for the egg-packing industry. With more than 8000 machines in operation and agents in most countries, RATIONAL is able to offer immediate service and repairs.

Continuous online monitoring, remote preventive maintenance and a 24-hour HelpDesk ensure uninterrupted operation. RATIONAL is the only company approved by the USDA to supply labelling machines and labels for the date-marking of egg pack in the United States and is the industry standard in Europe, China and Australia.

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Give peas a chance Well-established Belgian chicory and pea processor Cosucra celebrated 25 years of experience in extracting pea protein isolate in 2015 with the inauguration of a state-of-the-art pea processing line

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Cosucra

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family owned company since 1852, Cosucra’s humble beginnings involved the extraction of sugar from locally grown beets for markets in France, Belgium and The Netherlands.

Following more than a century of steady success, the company became the first to produce international Inulin from its production plant; this groundbreaking development resulted in the launch of Inulin Fibruline, a chicory soluble fibre that is tasteless, odorless, soluble and easy to process. Today Fibruline, in accordance with the EU Directive 2008/100/EC on nutrition labeling for foodstuffs, is a globally recognised dietary fibre that boasts nutritional features including fibre enrichment and calorie reduction; it is also a viable solution for less sugar and fat in products and improves gut health.

Having proven its capabilities within the processing of chicory soluble fibre, the company established its pea processing facility in 1990, with the launch of pea protein Pisane®, pea fibres Swelite® and Exatine® and pea starch Nastar® to the market swiftly following this milestone. With a quarter of a decade of experience in pea processing behind it, Cosucra is viewed as a pioneer in the world of high added value nutritional ingredients that are derived from chicory and peas and has developed a strong reputation for continuously finding ways to improve its highly pure pea protein isolate, Pisane, which provides high levels of nutrition and functionality to customers. In fact, the non-dairy protein is the sustainable and effective alternative to regular protein isolate as it is free from common allergens, is a protein of choice for vegetarians and is suitable for the gluten-free market. As a high protein food, Pisane also helps customers remain full for longer and lengthens the time between meals and is highly beneficial to the elderly as it is rich in leucine, which is involved in muscle synthesis, and also contains high levels of arginine and lysine, both of which are essential in bone health maintenance.

Further discussing the benefits is Michel Dewael, commercial director at Cosucra: “Pisane is a very pure pea protein isolate (90 per cent protein on dry matter), that offers high nutritional value and can also be easily incorporated in protein-rich diet foods and drinks. Pisane also improves the nutritional profile and overall quality of products, such as beverages, energy bars and biscuits, soups and ready meals; all of which are specially designed for people requiring a special, health or sports-related diet for weight management, performance improvement, allergenicity concerns and medical purposes.” This commitment to ongoing enhancements has led to strong partnerships with

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more than 400 food manufacturers who use the company’s ingredients in more than 1000 applications across the globe.

Increased demand With people more consciously looking for natural foods due to a rise in interest in sustainability, vegetarianism, flexitarianism and sports nutrition from amateur athletes, global demand for plant-based proteins is anticipated to grow by more than 40 per cent from 2010 to 2030. As such, Cosucra has made the strategic decision to develop a brand new 30 million euros pea processing line, as Michel explains: “In the last five years we have seen an increasing demand for plant protein. The growing interest in this type of protein

The company also optimised its production process to offer an extremely pure ingredient that is created in an environment with the best possible standards for quality, safety and hygiene

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is related to an increased awareness among consumers with regards to healthier foods prepared with ingredients that come from local and sustainable farming. More and more people are looking for alternatives to animal protein.

“One of the major challenges we managed to overcome during the building process was to not interrupt our production of Pisane; we also achieved implementation of the new processing line in only 18 months.

Besides investing in concrete, the

majority of the 30 million euros was dedicated to the acquisition of specific equipment and monitoring systems.

Thanks to our long experience in extracting plant protein, we knew exactly what kind of machines we needed and designed them to ensure the best results in terms of production.�

Focus on hygiene In line with its decision to develop a new production line, the company also optimised its production process to offer an extremely pure ingredient that is created in an environment with the best possible standards for quality, safety and hygiene. “One example of this is that when you visit our plant you will notice that all of the utilities piping is no longer visible as we integrated them into the pillars supporting the construction.

This is a big advantage in terms of hygiene. On top of this, all of our

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Cosucra equipment has been designed with the highest of standards in terms of food safety; the production line also meets the most demanding requirements for energy savings and the rational use of resource. With this investment completed, we can face the future confidently,” highlights Michel.

With the market now fully embracing natural ingredients such as Pisane and demand anticipated to continue soaring over the next 15 years, the future looks positive for Cosucra as it focuses its attentions on the already established North American and European markets as well as the burgeoning Asian market.

“Our company has evolved from a pioneer status in 1990 to a market leader in 2015. Although our ambition is to double turnover in the next five years, our ultimate aim is to improve the health and wellbeing of each and everyone,” concluded Michel. D www.cosucra.com

CGK CGK is specialised in engineering and building installations for the storage, transportation and dosing of liquids. Those installations consist of automatisation, storage tanks, piping and industrial insulation.

Based in Belgium, CGK provides its services to the food industry in Belgium, North-France and the Netherlands.

At Cosucra, CGK installed complete dosing installations with several storage tanks of which one was a 45m³ tank with thermal insulation and heat tracing to guarantee frost protection.

During the design phase CGK used 3D scanning technology to draw the new piping installations into the existing production hall.

CGK always aims to build reliable process installations with a focus on security and productiveness.

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Award-winning quality

By focusing on traceability, quality and close partnerships with suppliers, Macdonald Hotels is building up an individual reputation for excellence in its restaurants across the UK and Ireland 52 www.foodchainmagazine.com

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edicated to delivering a unique experience to every customer that arrives at any one of over 40 hotels across the UK, Macdonald Hotels ensures each of its hotels has its own individual charm and takes on the character of the area in which it is located.

Achieving the prestigious AA Hotel Group of the Year award for the second time in six years in September 2013,

the group’s commitment to achieving the highest quality standards in all aspects of the business has also led to it achieving more AA rosettes than any other UK hotelier. The group was also awarded the AA Eco-Hotel Group of the year in 2012 for its focus on reducing electricity and fossil fuel usage by 15 per cent in 2015.

Proud to deliver the best possible service to customers across its portfolio

Macdonald Hotels

vary by region, the quality of the produce and the relationship that we have with the supplier is the key, underlying aspect of our success. It’s very important for a company with a deliberately diverse portfolio of properties like ours, to be able to meet equally varied customer dining expectations, without ever compromising on the best possible quality and provenance in our food and beverage offering,” explains Simon Jackson, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Macdonald Hotels.

Differentiated in the market by its dedication to serving only the highest quality of food, Macdonald Hotels uses the finest seasonal ingredients and sources the best produce available.

Placing a great deal of importance on the provenance and traceability of its food, Macdonald Hotels expects the highest standards of diligence in product integrity and traceability from its suppliers. For example, meat is sourced from highly reputable suppliers, with 21-day aged cuts of beef supplied directly from Scotbeef, thus ensuring Macdonald Hotels’ new Scottish Steakhouse restaurants deliver delicious food of the best possible quality.

Seasonal menus

of beautiful, individual hotels, the forward-thinking group is unwavering in its focus on achieving customer satisfaction in all areas of the business.

“Aside from providing high quality bedrooms, our other main activities are food and beverage, leisure and spa, golf and the corporate and conference markets. Because of the diversity of our client base from North to South we offer varied menus, but although food tastes

Placing a great deal of importance on the provenance and traceability of its food, Macdonald Hotels expects the highest standards of diligence in product integrity and traceability from its suppliers

Because Macdonald Hotels buys with provenance in mind and prefers to support local businesses, the chefs of its restaurants are given flexibility in planning menus by the season, which thus ensures that UK produce comes first. “We have a range of fantastic talent when it comes to chefs in the UK, arguably the best in the world; we also have the best produce in the world on our doorstep and we very much encourage our chefs to challenge themselves when it comes to deliver interesting and unique dishes,” says Robert B. Cook, Commercial Director at Macdonald Hotels. “For example, during asparagus season, the asparagus will be supplied locally and will feature in most of our hotel menus, however, to further stimulate our customers we are working with our wine supplier and will be matching asparagus dishes with different Alberinos from Spain. This way

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of working not only excites your team, but also motivates suppliers by offering a challenge and, most importantly, it excites customers and results in them returning to our food events throughout the year.”

Food events Elaborating further, Robert continues: “With our Scottish base, our calendar of events tends to start in January for Burns night and Burns suppers. For this event we will offer Burns related food throughout the month, as well as nibbles at the bar, and will be working with Glenmorangie to deliver a taste of Burns. Following this, we of course have Valentine’s Day and Mothers’ Day, before we go onto the asparagus and Alberino promotion. On top of this, we are having a number of whisky related events throughout the year and have an al fresco festival in the summer; we will also be offering game dinners during

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Macdonald Hotels game season, so there is a lot going on both centrally and locally.”

In line with Macdonald Hotels celebrating its 25th anniversary throughout 2016, the company will be delivering 25 special food events across the UK from January until December; each of these will support a local charity nominated by locals, plus the Muir Maxwell Trust, which supports epilepsy. “The 25 events are not only to celebrate our 25 years in the business, but also allow us to give a bit back to the communities in which we are based by hosting various dinners for a range of chosen charities,” highlights Robert.

With 25 years of growth and success behind it, the future looks positive for Macdonald Hotels as it continues to exceed rising expectations from a more food-orientated customer base through the delivery of a consistently worldclass service and the development of new food concepts. Robert concludes:

“Provincial hotels have not always been seen as the best place to get a meal.

Our goal is quite simple; we want to be widely recognised as the best place in town for food, service and atmosphere; the place where you can always find a new favourite on the menu.” D www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk

ECA Group We have been working with Macdonald Hotels to review all options for contracting utilities since 1993. Our remit includes: Energy Procurement, Bill Validation, Reporting and Account Management.

“We have implemented initiatives that allows them to audit and implement savings across their estate reducing consumption by 15%+,” stated ECA. “ECA provide us with highly valuable monthly reporting, that allows us to monitor utility consumption and focus on energy saving initiatives,” added Macdonald Hotels.

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A fresh approach

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Manufacturer of high-quality and innovative sterilisation and pasteurisation systems, Steritech, proves that close collaboration with customers can be an effective route to long-term success 56 www.foodchainmagazine.com

ounded in 1988 by Patrice Camu off the back of years of experience in the retorting industry, Steritech brings to market a range of high quality, innovative and process driven sterilisation and pasteurisation systems for the global food industry. Based in Alsace, France, the company is well placed both strategically and geographically to serve its core markets in Germany, France, Holland and Switzerland, and actively establishes strong global partnerships to distribute products to worldwide markets. “Central to our company is that we are a process driven company,” begins Global Sales Manager, Richard Mandille. “We always try to produce our machines based on our clients’ products and be more

process orientated rather than being machine builders.”

Initially focusing on batch retort systems, Steritech demonstrated its skills of foresight and innovation by being one of the first companies to develop continuous systems. This facilitates the growing need to process a range of flexible packaging solutions including glass, cans, plastic trays and pouches.

“Driven by our process orientation, this means that we really have to look at how packaging will react to high temperatures and pressures from our machines to sterilise and pasteurise the products,” explains Richard. “We are also very strong with our innovation, we always look to come up with new ideas and new ways to improve our machines.”

Steritech What really differentiates Steritech on the market is its approach to customer relationships. Richard recognises that as a small company it is critical for Steritech to work alongside its customers and offer unrivalled quality. “It is vital that during the process each product in a batch is subject to the same conditions and therefore result in consistent quality,” he highlights. “One of the ways we do this is by selecting strong European suppliers who we are confident with to make sure our machines are the best. We don’t believe in cutting costs to create better margins or to compete on price, our products are solely about quality. Many of our clients understand this as its increased reliability and lifetime longevity can deliver better return on investment.”

To illustrate the competencies of

Innovation The other significant example of Steritech’s recent drive for innovation is its Trilogy operating system. Developed as a result of customers telling the company what the main challenges of production are – notably a complicated user system and lack of training, which can operate in significant downtime and loss of time and money. “In response we have developed the Trilogy operating system, which we offer in three packages, in addition to the standard system, to the customer,”

says Richard. “These are a production module, which is a user friendly interface with shortcuts, tabs and universal symbols to make it easy for someone to operate and understand with less training required; the maintenance module, which combines a step-by-step, illustrated troubleshooting menu to self-solve errors with a preventative maintenance calendar; and finally a management module.

“This management module allows a plant manager to monitor and record everything that goes through the process in

Steritech, in terms of its approach to quality and innovation, are two recent product launches. The first, the SerialTower, was developed and launched as a result of awarded funding from the EU Eco-Innovation programme, which recognises and encourages energy saving innovations.

“The SerialTower delivers a number of energy saving, and wider, advantages to our customers,” outlines Richard. “As a continuous system, the SerialTower allows products to be fed through one side and out the other and therefore allows the next batch to enter before the last has been completed, cutting down on product waiting times. Once a product has been packaged, the longer it waits before being sterilised the higher the risk that quality will diminish, therefore its important that they can be sterilised quickly. Before, this was countered with more batch systems, but this takes up space, manpower, energy and substantial investment to operate.

“In terms of energy consumption, normally one retort vessel would have to constantly reheat and cool rapidly to facilitate the sterilisation process and this demands a huge amount of energy. With the SerialTower solution, the customer will have two towers, one for heating and one for cooling, and therefore eliminates this need to reheat constantly. We have also been able to demand less water by introducing a water re-use cycle to the process.”

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Steritech

terms of energy consumption, product numbers and so on. This data can then be viewed in a number of comparative ways to facilitate a process of continuous improvement within the factory. The user can also input costs of things like energy and material usage, to closely monitor and improve the cost efficiency of a process.”

As Steritech moves forward and looks ahead at a future of rising global demand for convenience products, innovation, customer service and quality will remain top of the company’s list of

priorities as it continues to grow. The company recently established a new partnership in Japan and sees further opportunities across the whole American continent. “If somebody approaches us with a potential new market for our products we are always open at exploring that market as a new opportunity,” notes Richard.

Over the next 12 months the company will be launching a new product line of continuous systems that offers similar process quality

at a reduced cost to allow growing company’s to access the expensive technology in order to grow. Again, this development grew out of paying careful attention to the customer demands. In the longer term, Steritech will be looking at consolidating already established markets and product ranges, alongside marketing itself and its unique solutions to expand and grow at a targeted 30 per cent per annum. D www.steritech.eu.com

T: +49-(0)271-35908-0 F: +49-(0)271-35908-50 W: www.siegthaler.de Here at Siegthaler we bend and flash weld butt rings from 500 mm outside diameter up to 7000 mm. The maximum cross section we are able to bend is 65.000 mm² (Carbon steel). Beside this we are using seamless rolled rings. We are able to machine these rings by turning, drilling and milling.

The materials we are handling are carbon steel, stainless steel, low alloy steel and high alloy steel acc.

EN standard as well as ASME standard.

Beside these rings and flanges we are delivering tube sheets and other components for pressure vessel manufacturer.

We are also machining as a subcontractor custom made products such as welded steel constructions or cast iron parts.

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The Welsh Pantry

A strong competitor Since its acquisition in 2010 by Indigo Food Group, The Welsh Pantry is now a significant manufacturer within the UK savoury pastry market

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ollowing five years of investment and production enhancement, The Welsh Pantry has been transformed into a well-reputed bakery that has merged the long-term expertise of Welsh Pantry with modern equipment and a strong commitment to quality and the environment. “Winning Blend Limited, which trades as ‘The Welsh Pantry’ was established in 1988, and has a strong heritage in manufacturing high quality pies, savoury pastries, ready meals and quiche. In 2010, the business was bought by Indigo Food Group, a successful group based in Bristol who injected a new lease of life into the company under their new management and subsequently invested financially into the business, bringing together a realm of food experience and a passion for high

quality products,” explains Alan Shaw, Technical Manager at The Welsh Pantry.

Strategically relocated to larger premises in 2011, the company has since further expanded facilities and invested more than £3 million in equipment. In fact, in the last 12 months alone, The Welsh Pantry invested £2 million on capital expenditure in relation to business improvements; this includes modifications to existing equipment and the acquisition of new equipment to improve manufacturing processes.

Equipment added to the company’s premises include a RISCO Mixer RS450, which has enabled The Welsh Pantry to produce larger volumes of mixes while ensuring few cycles and a more consistent product; it has also resulted in enhanced planning

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functions on site and reduced labour costs. The company has also added a K&G Wetter 360 litre bowl chopper, which has enabled the production of products up to 360 litre mixes from the previous amount of 50 litres, and also upgraded the laminator and flatbed, which has enabled the pastry plant to produce 3.5 tonnes of pastry per hour; this upgrade has also achieved 20 per cent production efficiency on the line.

In addition, The Welsh Pantry has installed a state-of-the-art X-ray machine in the high risk packing department, as Alan highlights: “The installation of the X-Ray machine in the high risk packing department towards the end of 2014 has been revolutionary both for The Welsh Pantry site and the bakery industry as a whole. Quality control procedures have been enhanced without the need to compromise on efficiency, and as a result of the installation foreign body

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complaints have shown a 50 per cent decline across our pie ranges.”

With these major changes in place, the company has effectively secured its place as a strong player within the bakery industry; a feat that is even more impressive considering the increasingly competitive nature of the business at a time when manufacturers are under further pressure to meet stringent demands, both in business acumen and innovation.

Passionate team As a 100 per cent privately owned firm, The Welsh Pantry today not only benefits from ultra-modern facilities, but also from quick decision making by a team that is passionate about food and business and is keen to develop further growth for the business.

Moreover, as a people-based brand, the company has been consistently working to strengthen staff through training,

work-based education and product knowledge, which not only boosts morale and passion for a job well done, but also ensures an increased level of quality in food production, as Alan notes: “By recognising the key to ensuring a high quality product is with production staff across all levels of operatives and management. With this in mind, the Technical team worked together to find ways to educate staff on how to better recognise acceptable and rejected produce, and how to pick up on issues in production and packing before the finished items are dispatched.

“This started with tightening of quality assurance standards using photographic images to aid production staff on the manufacturing line, with feedback used to identify where tighter controls were needed to assure the best quality finished product. Working with retail customers to generate photo

The Welsh Pantry standards that reflect the needs of the customer and key areas of the finished product that may require further visual analysis or testing on the line.”

Multiple contracts This commitment to delivering product consistency also ties in with the company’s focus on food safety and quality, with The Welsh Pantry achieving back-to-back A grade standards for BRC Version Six and achieving A+ in June 2015.

“This year, The Welsh Pantry was accredited with the Green Dragon Level 5 Environmental Management Standard, making it the first food manufacturing site in Wales to achieve Level 5 accreditation. The site is technically approved for several major retail customers including Aldi, Lidl, Asda and Iceland. Other technical achievements include RSPO certification and Red Tractor approval for meat used in our products,” highlights Alan.

This focus on quality and boosting efficiency while also keeping waste and mistakes to a minimum has resulted in a strong customer base for the company, which proudly manufactures products such as hot eating pies, slices, pasties, sausage rolls and selected unique Welsh ready meals for the regional market in Wales. “The Welsh Pantry produce a large range of own branded products that are sold through the van sales side of the business. We manufacture different size and weight sausage rolls in 5/8 and 20 pack. Slices come in a range of flavours such as Cheese & Onion, Minced Beef & Onion, Chicken & Mushroom, Chicken and Ham, Tikka and Balti Curry. We also produce pasties with minced Beef & Vegetable and Corned Beef, these come in individual and three pack multipacks.

The ready meal range consists of Faggots and Peas and Lamb Cawl which is a Welsh Lamb stew produced regionally for the retailers,” explains Alan. Core local customers include ASDA, Aldi, Iceland, Poundland, Tesco, Morrison’s, J Sainsbury, while its national customers are ASDA, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl.

Discussing a recent major contract for The Welsh Pantry, Alan states: “In spring 2014, The Welsh Pantry managed to secure a sought after contract with Asda, resulting in a successful launch of a savoury pie range that September. Throughout the development, launch and continuing supply chain process, The Welsh Pantry have sought to maintain regular communication with the customer and be open and honest regarding the manufacturing processes implemented

and materials used. This in turn has caused the customer to instil their trust in both The Welsh Pantry brand and products made.”

Following a truly phenomenal transformation and a number of sought after contracts under its belt, The Welsh Pantry has a positive future ahead as it looks to continue its trend of rapid growth through securing new business while also cementing solid relationships with its current customer base. D www.welshpantry.com

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Raking in the dough Following its takeover of pre-dough specialist Isernhager in January 2015, machine manufacturer Diosna Dierks & Sohne GmbH now holds a coveted position in the market as the only provider of complete dough production including biotechnology

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rivately owned German company Diosna Dierks & Sohne GmbH has been involved in the food industry since 1885, when its founder, Friedrich Dierks, and a partner, established the firm for the fabrication of machines for farming and creameries. Over the years the company developed a steady stream of innovative mixers for both the pharmaceutical and bakery industries, two strategic business segments that it has retained a strong presence in today. Elaborating on the company’s rise in dough production is CFO and Head of Bakery Division Henrik Oevermann: “In the bakery division we focus on dough products, including

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the biotechnology and equipment for fermentation of dough and the mixing of dough. We are focused on both big industrial bakers and small artisan bakers, as processes are the same.�

With the remaining shares of Diosna sold by the family in 1997 to Multimixing SA, a French holding company that was acquired by Group Breteche in 1998, Diosna further launched some innovative developments like the Premium Range mixers in stainless steel and the Bottom discharge mixers.

Renowned as a leader in kneading machinery, the company develops each Diosna product individually to ensure its bakery machines are a perfect fit for the

Diosna Dierks & Sohne production process of any bakery. “As a typical German champion, we lead the way with regards to quality and always have our teams striving to improve the products we create. We also focus a great deal on service; we have our service structure with service hubs and partners across the globe, which makes us highly reliable. Ultimately, we say what we do and we do what we say,” highlights Henrik.

Furthermore, Diosna achieves an ideal dough due to the optimal mixing conduct of its machines, which thus results in a solution for all kinds of doughs. Indeed, with a Diosna product, the amount of dough or hourly output are not important for an ideal result; instead, these bakery machines obtain perfect kneading results even with challenging kinds of doughs like wheat or brown bread. “One product within our bakery range that I would like to highlight is the ContinoMIXX, a machine that has a patented solution to continuous mixing thanks to its inner tool, which operates in one direction, and an outer tool that operates in the opposite direction. It is somewhat superior to other solutions in the market and has the potential to be used for all of the food industry,” says Henrik.

Made from stainless steel, the ContinoMIXX has been specially developed for use with high quality wheat-based and mixed dough to mix raw materials into a finished dough. Thanks to its twin-screw mixing machine, a particularly smooth mix can be produced by the ContinoMIXX, while the twin-screw kneading machine operates along the entire feed length to create a controllable and intense dough-kneading process.

Not content with its already strong presence in the production of dough, Diosna took the strategic decision of taking over the entire shares of predough specialist Isernhaeger in January 2015, which has provided the company

with a unique platform to provide complete dough production. From the dosage and pre-dough preparation, the Isernhaeger products for pre-dough bio-technology, processing and the kneading, all the way up to the handover logistics such as belts and elevator tippers, both organisations now provide the comprehensive range of dough competence, putting them in a globally unique market position, as Henrik discusses: “Our history as Diosna has always been more connected to equipment and machine manufacture, with our revenue more or less linked to the sale of equipment. With Isernhaeger and its supply chain, we are now progressing into process equipment and bio-technology for fermented pre-dough.

“Looking into the strategic reasons behind this takeover, we now have a triangle of success that is comprised of an equipment corner, a biotechnical area and a process and automation area. Traditional Diosna is the equipment corner, while Isernhaeger

is the biotechnical corner as it has the raw materials to process the food on an industrial scale, while process and automation is all about the process required to specific biotechnology, specific ingredients and the equipment. This strategic triangle is not only superior to our former method of operation, but also an USP to our customer, who needs all parts of the triangle.”

Along with the obvious benefits of the takeover came the merging of employees, with 45 members of Isernhaeger’s staff added to Diosna’s site. “If you merge a machine manufacturing company with a biotechnical and process company there is always a lot to learn on both sides of the hierarchy,” states Henrik. “We are working with experts and biotechnologists and have also hired a number of dough technologists who are able to create new recipes and new products with the customer on a large scale without sacrificing quality.”

Aware that customers want the perfect product, Diosna is now able to deliver bespoke solutions in accordance with its clients specifications, as Henrik highlights: “We have had a lot of enquiries for integrated pre-dough and dough production as we are able to define the complete process. For example, two to three months after the merger we sold our first installation in Turkey, where a customer was interested in using our integrated technology.”

As consumer markets in locations such as Asia, the Middle East, Africa and America are shifting from rice to wheat products, the future looks increasingly positive for Diosna as it focuses on implementing its strategy to the customer by showing the benefits of working with dough experts that can deliver a turnkey solution. “Ultimately, we want to be dough experts, delivering consumer guaranteed best bakery products all over the world,” Henrik concludes. D www.diosna.com

www.foodchain-magazine.com 31

Oh my cod With an annual turnover of 36 million euros (326 MNOK in 2014), family-owned fish manufacturer Gunnar Klo has developed a strong reputation in the market for its high quality products

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Gunnar Klo

B

ased in Myre and Stø in Øksnes municipality, Vesterålen, Gunnar Klo operates in the production of whitefish, such as fillets, fresh fish, salted fish and stockfish. Part of the cod initiative since its inception in 1920, when Deputy Leader and Project Manager Kristain Klo’s greatgrandfather, Mr Oluf Klo began buying white fish in Nyskund, a small fishing village close to where the company is now located, Gunnar Klo today benefits from its proud history and long-term experience within the growing cod export market.

“My great-grandfather and his son, Gunnar Klo (Gunnar Jarl Klo is my father) brought fish from local fishermen in Nyksund until 1952 when my great-grandfather moved his plant to Myre to be strategically located on a better harbour as Nyksund was too shallow for bigger fishing vessels.

In 1970 my father began working and two decades on we acquired a plant following our entry into salmon production in 1987,” begins Kristian.

Indeed, in 1990 Gunnar Klo acquired another factory strategically located in Stø on the nothern tip of Langøya, an important receiving station for fish as it is near to one of the world’s richest fishing fields for cod, haddock and other species.

“In 1993 we moved our daughter company, Øyfisk AS, which is our fish farm for producing salmon and trout,

to the area around Myre. On top of this, we are also producing salted fish at a production facility in co-operation with Myre Salt Fish Group AS that is used by three of the producers in the harbour,” Kristian adds. Through the establishment of its daughter company in 1987, which currently has four salmon licenses, the 100 employee strong Gunnar Klo is able to deliver a wider range of high quality fish to its customers.

Discussing the reasons behind Gunnar Klo’s ability to deliver high quality goods, Kristian states: “We are located close to the good fishing areas and resources, so the fish we produce is very fresh. We also have access to a special cod (called ‘Skrei’) that swims through the Norwegian coastal area around the Vesterålen and Lofoten islands as they migrate to their spawning grounds. The quality of fish at this time of year is exceptionally good.”

In Norwegian Lore it is believed that haddock tastes best in the months containing the letter ‘R’, and the codseason (skrei) runs from January –April, making the winter months particularly

‘

profitable for fish manufacturers such as Gunnar Klo. During this period it is clear that not all fish are created equal, as the ‘skrei’ becomes highly sought after in the area. To qualify as skrei, which is identifiable by the tag on its dorsal fin, the cod must be fully grown and immaculate to look at; it is also imperative that the fish is packed and on its way to delivery within 12 hours of its capture.

High quality With the first skrei expected to arrive in January each year, Gunnar Klo is among the companies within the Norwegian fishing industry that work continuously for the following four months cleaning, grading and packing each catch; most of which is caught with long lines from small boats. Although the days are long and the work challenging, it is a highly lucrative operation, with skrei being sent to the most upmarket fish counters in the UK, including Harrods and Selfridges. It can also naturally be found in upscale restaurants, where those who can afford the high quality cod can enjoy the skrei’s delicate flavour and smooth, firm texture that crumbles into large, moist flakes.

As part of this increasingly indemand industry, Gunnar Klo is in an enviable position as it continues to deliver environmentally approved, high quality cod to a hungry market

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In 2011 SKREI became a protected trademark, registered by the Norwegian Seafood Council.

Increase exports “There are strict rules as to how you can use the skrei brand and its label; to meet these regulations we have a policy of being very strict on quality to ensure no shortcuts are taken. By using our experience in producing fish, we know temperature, for example, is an integral part of fish farming to control.

Moreover, because of our logistical benefits, we are able to produce fish and send the products out to the market as fast as possible,” explains Kristian. This long-term commitment has not gone unnoticed in the industry, with Gunnar Klo leading the way as the first in Norway to be approved by the environmental labels of requirements in Sweden and Debio in Norway for cod and haddock. The company is

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also approved by the MSC for cod and haddock.

Following efforts to increase Norwegian cod exports, those within the fishing industry have seen foreign sales growing by more than 60 per cent since 2013, with 43,426 tonnes of cod exported in the same period of January to April in 2014. These efforts stem from the Norwegian Seafood Council and the fishing industry, which have both strived to market the ancestry and tradition of cod in Norway alongside the efficiency and quality of the delivered products; a strategy that has resulted in a 30 per cent rise in cod sales in Germany in 2014 when compared to 2013, and a 70 per cent increase in the amount of cod eaten by the French in the same period. “Our key markets are mainly fresh headed and gutted, fresh packed products for exporters who sell our fish to the Norwegian market, the Scandinavian market, Spain and

Portugal. England is also a major market for us,” says Kristian. “We do also produce for the rest of the EU and some for the US market.”

Cod hotel As part of this increasingly indemand industry, Gunnar Klo is in an enviable position as it continues to deliver environmentally approved, high quality cod to a hungry market.

However, this recent bounty has led to the industry thinking differently about how it markets cod as fresh cod costs an average of 25 per cent more than frozen and accounted for only approximately 20 per cent of total cod exports in 2013. To increase this percentage, the seafood industry is looking to store fish live, which would extend the availability of fresh cod up until the third quarter of each year through the use of cod hotels along the coast.

Gunnar Klo With the Norwegian government looking to increase the value of Norway’s cod catch via increased R&D funding and increased quotas for live cod, the amount of live cod sold could potentially increase more than tenfold by 2020. To help the seafood industry of Norway reach its potential, Gunnar Klo and daughter company Øyfisk are supporting part of a pilot cod hotel project that was initiated by Andre Reinholdtsen, owner of Myre Havbruk.

The goal of the project is to find out if cod can be kept happy and healthy in temporary sea storage locations along the western coast of Norway, which, if successful, could lead to 30,000 tonnes of cod stored by 2020.

Despite the obvious monetary opportunities available from the cod hotel, there are still some challenges to overcome as researchers continue to find a solution that will lower cod mortality rates. With this in mind,

Kristian is looking forward to the next cod season while also finding new markets that are willing to pay premium prices for premium goods.

“Over the next 12 months we will prepare for the next cod season and

focus on getting more stable deliveries from the fishermen. We will also look into increasing our salmon production and invest in rebuilding parts of our plant,” he concludes. D www.gunnar-klo.no

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That’s a

wrap!

Budelpack today packages 200 million solid, liquid, powdered and granulated food products annually for customers who want innovative solutions and a forward-thinking approach to people powered packaging

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Budelpack

N

amed after the town in which its history began, the Netherlands’ first co-packing company Budelpack was founded by André Nieuwkerk at his confectionary factory in Budel as a contract packing firm for Mars in 1971.

Since then, the company has developed into one of Europe's leading co-packers, as Peter Nieuwkerk, Managing Director of Budelpack, begins: “Budelpack is a group of companies that pack food, pet food and fresh products on behalf of third parties such as brand owners and manufacturers

‘

Budelpack has extremely high standards when it comes to its quality, most notably with regards to its stringent allergen control

Peter Nieuwkerk

who send us their products. With our series of packaging equipment and machines, as well as our highly qualified personnel, we pack the products and ship them back in consumer units; this is our basic principle.”

Having introduced more than 400 product innovations for food, pet food and fresh food since its inception, Budelpack has not only developed a leading reputation in the packaging industry, but has also garnered an enviable customer base that includes blue-chip organisations that own brands such as Wrigley, Nestlé and Heinz. In addition, it often works with manufacturers that produce items on behalf of other clients and direct retailers such as Tesco, J. Sainsbury and Marks & Spencer. Key to the company’s reputation is its flexibility in packing, with bottles, cans, standard pouches and cartons just some of the options available to clients.

Although there is huge demand for packing companies in the market, Budelpack refuses to rest on its laurels and instead maintains its competitive edge thanks to a focus on innovation, both in packing and packaging, as Peter explains: “Innovation is not only a key strength for Budelpack, but is also a key necessity to have in the market. We approach innovation in two different ways, the first of which is to develop packaging innovations for the market as packaging is time consuming, expensive and there is a big risk that consumers won’t buy the product itself because of the packaging. As an independent company that works for many different brand owners and manufacturers, we can spread the risk of package innovation across different customers, which means if a packaging innovation for customer A fails, we can still use the same development cost and packaging innovations for other markets. It is a strong advantage.”

This way of operating results in new and innovative packaging coming onto the market, such as the ‘Jiggle’, which Budelpack created as an alternative to shaker bottles that are shaken up for pancake, muffin or waffle making.

“The principle of The Jiggle is the same as the shaker bottle, in which the bottle is only filled to approximately 25 per cent with powder before the consumer adds a certain amount of water or milk before shaking. However, The Jiggle is an alternative as it is basically a flexible shake up pouch that you can also squeeze to make a better mix in comparison to shaking, which runs the risk of lumps in the bottle. It also reduces packaging material waste with 40 per cent and reduces logistical costs by eight per cent due its smaller size.”

Mobile service Meanwhile, within the packing segment of the business, Budelpack strives to create new business models for customers to lower logistical costs. For example, the company recently introduced a way of taking its personnel and machinery to customers through what it refers to as the ‘On-Site concept’. “We bring the people and materials to where the products are, which massively reduces the amounts of pallets that have to be shipped back and forth,” explains Peter. “In fact, it was in October of this year that we established a mobile version of the On-Site concept, where we have a mobile packing service that involves a wholly operational packing machine inside a trailer that we drive across the country to go onto our customers’ sites. Essentially, we go on site, pack the products, close up the trailer and then move onto the next address.”

Having visited 32 different locations in the first two weeks alone, and positive reactions to the mobile version of the on-site concept so far, the company anticipates this way of operating to grow in demand as other customers realise the huge flexibility benefits of this way of packing products.

On top of its factory and mobile on-site concept, Budelpack has further strengthened its logistical options following a partnership with FM Logistic, which enables the company to perform packing operations from any of FM Logistic’ 85 sites across the globe. “This partnership allows us to offer reliable costs during a project as well as access to 85 locations, which means that, with our mobile solution, our facilities for customers are almost unlimited,” highlights Peter.

www.foodchainmagazine.com 69

FoodChain THE BUSINESS OF FOOD AND DRINK

To advertise in FoodChain magazine please contact: Sales Manager Joe Woolsgrove jwoolsgrove@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Rob Wagner rwagner@schofieldpublishing.co.uk T: +44 (0)1603 274130 | F: +44 (0)1603 274131 www.foodchainmagazine.com

70 www.foodchainmagazine.com

Budelpack

Aware that an innovative organisation with strong logistics is nothing without an excellent reputation for quality, Budelpack has extremely high standards when it comes to its quality, most notably with regards to its stringent allergen control. “From a consumer perspective, one of the most well-known and feared allergens is nuts; alongside this severe allergen are milk or lactose, wheat or peanut allergens. However, when it comes to packing nuts in a factory when we are also packing nutfree products, we must be absolutely sure that no trace of nuts will go into the area where nut-free products are being packaged. This is so people who are allergic to nuts can be absolutely guaranteed that the product they buy is completely nut-free; it is something they rely upon,” says Peter. “As a primary co-packer in our situation, we have strict allergen control because an allergen such as nuts or lactose is an invisible thing; there could be a trace on your coat, shoes or in your hair that could be transported into a nut-free area. To overcome this challenge, we have reclothing facilities where our personnel can change clothing in a clean or safe zone or nut-free zone.”

factory that all meet the highest quality and food safety requirements. These efforts have not gone unnoticed, with the company holding the FSSC-22000 certificate, SKAL BRC and IFS; it also delivers packaging solutions in line with both kosher and halal requirements.

Furthermore, to maintain its focus on quality, the company regularly provides hygiene procedure and law & regulation training to employees, with personnel recently completing a 1.5 year E-learning programme supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

This programme focuses on structurally improving, among other things, labour

conditions and production efficiency as well as pro-activity and active coconceptualisation.

Despite challenges in the market as companies are consolidated and food waste increases, Budelpack is certain to continue reaping the benefits of its focus on innovation and quality as it looks to create an ‘any time, any place’ way of operating. “To be able to perform primary packing services, whether onsite at our factory, together with a partner or while mobile at any time or any place is a key driver for us over the next few years,” concludes Peter. D www.budelpack.com

Focus on quality Indeed, high quality control is a major strength of Budelpack, which has a total of 32 different packing zones within its

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A neat package With the strength and co-operation of Groupe Guillin behind it, market-leading Sharpak continues to drive a range of innovations into the packaging market

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Sharpak – Yate and Bridgewater

F

ounded in 1972, familyowned company Groupe Guillin is an international specialist in developing and manufacturing packaging solutions.

Through a programme of acquisitional growth the group now occupies a leading position in the global market with 18 subsidiaries spread across 11 sites and manufactures over 8.5 billion trays every year. Based in the UK, the Yate and Bridgewater subsidiaries perfectly demonstrate the innovative and world-beating approach to business that has afforded the group such success over its history. Brought under the group’s wing in 2010, the Yate and Bridgwater sites respectively manufacture polypropelylene (PP) rigid thermapacked trays for the mushroom, poultry and ready meal industries, and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and PET/PE (with a polyethylene laminate), for the red meat industry.

The core strengths of the companies within Groupe Guillin are very much the product of a smart and co-ordinated structure implemented across the whole network. “The group is very much focused on providing excellent service,” begins MD for Sharpak Yate and Bridgewater, Martin Taylor. “The group operates with each individual business having its own specialism. So Yate and Bridgewater have their own markets and this gives each entity its own nuances of focus. For example, our Bridgewater facility is very highly focused on making sure that the product has a very good sealing flange because more than 90 per cent of our customers there operate modified atmosphere packaging and therefore require a reliable seal. This is not a specialism across all sites but if another company wants to get into it then we will either help them do that, or they will sell our products. Basically as a group, we can provide a one-stop-shop

for our customers with highly specialised products and this allows us to service some major customers.”

Such a strategy is crucial for Sharpak and its sister companies to perform effectively in a fast paced and challenging market, and this is particularly important to the group’s reputation for innovation.

“All 11 sites across Europe share the same design platform,” explains Martin.

“This means that we can all share our designs and ideas very quickly, which allows us to progress together at a fast pace. Each company has its own design team and in-house prototyping facilities that includes 3D digital modelling and CNC lathe machines to rout out moulds for physical samples. We have spent a lot of time recently shortening this process so we now target to get a product from initial enquiry, through the design phase and to a prototyped sample within a week. This reflects the speed of the market.”

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In terms of specific innovations, Sharpak Yate and Bridgewater both present product portfolios that demonstrate a keen commitment to continuous improvement. At the forefront of recent developments is the award winning Sharpak Fortis range, which brings to market a variety of highly optimised products. Designed through a process of finite element analysis, every aspect of the tray has been optimised, resulting in a 20-30 per cent weight reduction and increased strength and integrity. The range has been designed in close collaboration with customers to work effectively within the most modern high speed packing lines used in food processing, and has a far reduced environmental footprint.

Another significant product, which Martin comments is gaining good traction within the market at present, is the Vista range. Utilising innovative

‘

We have made a lot of investment into absorption padding. These are important to lock away liquids and maintain a clean, presentable pack for consumers

vacuum pack technology and a shallow tray, the materials form a tight second skin around the product to provide a number of aesthetic, quality and environmental benefits. “We have also developed our SharpSeal range, which uses a single mono-PET material that can be recycled easily within the current post-consumer recycling system.

Continuing this trend for environmental responsibility is SharpLow, which incorporates mineral fillers in the material to reduce its petrochemical content whilst retaining its protection and strength qualities,� outlines Martin.

info@m-mes.com www.m-mes.com Quick - Efficient - Easy MMES (Mike Morgan Electrical Services) is an established electrical engineering and contracting company based in Bridgwater, Somerset since 1989, delivering 1st in class service to blue chip clients such as Sharpak.

Its continuing commitment to innovation and support when response is vital to Sharpak process and project management, ensures growth in its own provision, based on mutually beneficial relationship where responses are timely and a source of continuing improvement opportunities.

All aspects of electrical works are delivered to Sharpak including design, installation of power systems, process line installations, manufacture, assembly of control panels, factory and machine maintenance, inspection and testing for legislative compliance, 24/7 cover for production systems.

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Sharpak – Yate and Bridgewater

Other innovations are: SharpTek, which uses ground breaking antimicrobial technology to reduce the impact of cross contamination and provide reassurance to customers and consumers and SharpPlus, which uses special materials to absorb odours and increase consumer appeal. “This was originally developed for the poultry market but is becoming more popular in the meat industry, reducing the cost of customer complaints,” notes Martin.

“Then for the red meat industry we have made a lot of investment into absorption padding. These are important to lock away liquids and maintain a clean, presentable pack for consumers. We made the decision that padding via the use of robots is a far superior solution to hand padding as it reduces the risk of cross contamination. Therefore we have invested to ensure that our entire range of trays are padded by robots.”

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C. Bradley Engineering Ltd Machining, Welding, fabrication & Construction

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Sharpak – Yate and Bridgewater Supply chain Environmental responsibility is a key driver to Sharpak’s innovation strategy at present and this further entrenches the company’s leading position in a market where recyclable quality materials are critical to continued success. Another major focus for the company at the moment is its work with customers into supply chain optimisation. “Since the recession, value has really increased in terms of being a driver for consumers,” says Martin. “This has been looking at the entire supply chain to keep the overall cost down and provide better value for the end consumer.”

It is clear that operating as a supplier to the fast-paced and ever-changing consumer market throws up many challenges, but Sharpak is responding well thanks to its committed drive for innovation and the robust group structure that supports it. Groupe

Guillin as a whole commits £20 million a year into investment and over the last three years Bridgewater has received £12 million to cope with demand. “A lot of this has been put into increasing the warehouse as the business grows and develops,” highlights Martin. “We have to make sure we keep our service levels up to serve the market. We are always investing into faster, better machines as well as part of our approach to continuous improvement.”

With a period of successful growth ongoing, the future for Sharpak, and indeed the Guillin group as a whole, is positive despite challenges in the supply of PP raw materials. “We want to continue growing with a focus on continued innovation and improvement,” concludes Martin. “We have been successful so far but we see future opportunities and I think a lot of the innovations that we are developing and what some of our sister companies are developing in Europe are key to exploiting these. It’s a real key strength for us to be able to share these innovations across markets, so rather than just delivering what the customer wants today, we can start focusing on what they might need tomorrow.” D www.groupeguillin.fr/en

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Cream of the crop

With a total market share in Norway of approximately 48 per cent in 2015, family-owned and operated ice cream factory Hennig-Olsen Is AS is renowned for the quality and fine flavour of its range of ice cream products

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Hennig-Olsen

A

‘

proud annual producer of 27 million litres of ice cream, Hennig-Olsen has developed an exemplary reputation within the Norwegian market thanks to its long-term experience in ice cream development and production. With branch offices in Oslo, Haugesund, Bergen, Mold, Trondheim and Tromso, the 250 strong company boasts a turnover of 100 million euros, which is mainly through delivery of products throughout Norway, as well as exports to Murmansk, Russia. Today the company delivers premium quality ice cream in a wide range of flavours to its target customer base – retail and supermarkets, kiosks, petrol stations and HORECA. The success of the ice cream in the market is based on the inclusion of quality ingredients such as fruits and berries, chocolate, nuts, coffee, yogurt, and syrup as well as specials that include egg liquer, Oreo biscuits and Daim chocolate bars.

Key to the company maintaining its competitive edge in the market is the fact it is a family business

Hennig-Olsen also sells ice cream in single and multipacks, desserts, yogurts, cake, sprinkles and sauces.

“Hennig-Olsen’s ice cream factory was founded on the 5th May 1924 by Sven Hennig-Olsen, who spent four years in the US trying different crafts and jobs,” begins Paal Hennig-Olsen CEO and Managing Director at HennigOlsen. It was in Chicago that Sven mastered how to make ice cream the professional way and made plans to emigrate permanently, however, upon hearing from his girlfriend in Norway, he returned to his home country with ice cream producing equipment and

a book full of recipes. “When Sven began the business in 1924 he sold tobacco, chocolates, fruits and ice cream.

Naturally, he developed the business over the years by investing in new techniques and machines; he also began to manufacture sticks and tubs apart from the scooping products.”

With Sven’s death in 1945, his wife Ebba took over the business for eight years until Otto Hennig-Olsen, Paal’s father, took over in 1953. From this moment the company underwent further development, including its relocation to Kristiansand, which resulted in steady growth and the company reaching

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national distribution and a market share of 25 per cent in the 1980s. It was during this successful decade that Paal and his brother began working for Hennig-Olsen, with a focus on expansion, the development of new products and the acquisition of new machinery; alongside this, the brothers were keen to build on the brand of Hennig-Olsen as well as its different sub brands.

Craftsmanship “In 1997 I took over as Managing Director; that year we had a fantastic summer and sales rocketed, unfortunately 1998 was the opposite with lousy weather and dropping sales.

This was a challenging start for a young man, but I have continued to develop the company ever since. In 2012 we put down our own distribution and sold 100 ice cream trucks; distribution is now through wholesalers to all channels, including supermarkets such as Norges Gruppen, Shell and Esso; kiosks such as Mix and the catering sector,” explains Paal. “In fact, we have

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about 55 per cent of the market share in the food service segment in general.”

Throughout 2015 the company has enjoyed a market share of 48 per cent, with many Norwegians choosing Hennig-Olsen products such as ice cream cakes, soft scoop ice cream, soft-ice mix and milkshake mix over competitors. Key to the company maintaining its competitive edge in the market is the fact it is a family business, which means family values, faster decision making processes, a mutual dedication to success and, perhaps most importantly, loyal and enthusiastic colleagues. Additionally, Hennig Olsen focuses on craftsmanship in all areas of production and regularly invests in new equipment and facilities. “We have seven production lines, a mixing department, our own chocolate production area, and our own production of ripple sauces and nougat.

We also have a cold store with 10,000 pallet capacity, an R&D department and well-trained production and technical staff.”

This focus on product development

Hennig-Olsen

and quality has led to the release of two new products, Dugg Frozen Yogurt\ Frozen Sorbets, which are a healthier option with low fat content, and Inspira.

“These products are a series of 0.5 litre tubs, with frozen yogurt at 1.2 per cent fat and 40 per cent yogurt and a fat free frozen sorbet,” confirms Paal.

“Meanwhile, Inspira is a series of luxury ice creams with lots of goodies inside.”

Examples within this range of premium ice creams include berries, peanuts and caramel, and cookie dough.

Innovations In 2015 the company further proved its capabilities in ice cream production to the extreme when it unveiled the world’s largest ice cream cone ever made at the start of the Tall Ships Race at Kristianstad. Approximately 9000 people witnessed the feat, with the ice cream measuring 3.08 metres from top

to bottom and consisting of 40 litres of homemade ligonberry jam and 1080 litres of vanilla ice cream as well as 60 litres of chocolate; moreover, the biscuit cone alone weighed in at 75 kg. Discussing the world record, Paal states: “After a lot of testing, failing and discussion, we succeeded with the help of an engineer with long-term experience from the oil-service industry who did the difficult calculations with regards to height, weight and creating the mould.”

Benefiting from the loyalty of the Norwegian consumer, going forward Hennig-Olsen will be focusing on boosting efficiency within all areas of operation and continuing to develop new innovations for the market. “We also want to continue enjoying organic growth by exploring consumer and customer needs before transforming them into new products,” concludes Paal. D www.hennig-olsen.no

FoodChain THE BUSINESS OF FOOD AND DRINK

To advertise in FoodChain magazine please contact: Sales Manager Joe Woolsgrove jwoolsgrove@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Rob Wagner rwagner@schofieldpublishing.co.uk T: +44 (0)1603 274130 | F: +44 (0)1603 274131 www.foodchainmagazine.com

www.foodchainmagazine.com 81

Sweet success Northern confectioner Sweetdreams has undergone a programme of reshaping and now looks to the rest of the UK for continued growth

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W

ith a loyal following in the North of England, Choc Nibbles have been part of the Northern confectionery landscape for 30 years.

Originally an accidental creation by Dobsons Confectionery in Ponteland, the unique milk chocolate snack later formed the foundation for Sweetdreams Ltd. Matthew Stephenson bought the company eight years ago and the company remains 100 per cent family owned and managed as it sets about evolving into a nationally successful brand of chocolate products. Indicating Matthew’s turnaround, over the eight years turnover has increased three and a half times as it dispatches over 15 tonnes of product every week.

“The core product is Choc Nibbles,” begins Matthew, “but as we have developed flavours and ingredients the product range has increased. The second largest seller is Toffee Crumble,

followed by Choc Lick, and then we have introduced flavour variants of orange and mint. In 2015, we have launched two new products, which are Jammie and Posh. Our products are completely unique and can’t be mixed up with being anything else as we’re the only one doing it. We affectionately call it an ‘ugly’ treat, which can be a struggle to get new consumers to buy into, but those who have tried it, trust it and keep coming back.”

With a loyal brand following established in the North, Sweetdreams’ success has come from maintaining strong wholesale and distribution relationships, with its ability to offer high margins. “Of course we use high quality ingredients but from the way we process and the way we source to the fact that we have strong distribution partners and no sales force, means that we are able to keep costs down. We are very value driven,” he continues.

Sweetdreams However, having reached a financial plateau 18 months ago, Matthew decided to pursue a strategy of growth with the view to double the business in five years.

In the time since a £100,000 investment programme has been implemented to bring the company up to a point where it can deliver to a national market. At the heart of this have been new products, and in particular the Posh Choc Nibbles offering, which overcomes the challenge of the ‘ugly’ treat being an unappealing product to new consumers. “The Posh is an original Choc Nibble coated in high quality Belgian chocolate,” says Matthew. “The ugly treat disappears with a nice polish and shape to it. We had identified that it would be difficult to enter these new markets as a company of our size with our existing product range.

Therefore this product is very much part of the strategy to break into markets like discount and pre-packaged, as opposed to the traditionally jarred, wholesale products that we have launched before.”

The investment at Sweetdreams has been about positioning the business in the best way possible to achieve its growth strategy. “We have upped quality control and comfort infrastructure within the facility, sorted out the warehouse and of course brought in new capital equipment and machinery,” outlines Matthew. “Along with developing new products and packaging, this allows us to be far more reactive to the market, as we can start doing smaller runs and we can get into different distribution channels. We’ve also been upping our game with regards to quality systems and consultancy. However, the biggest problem has been getting the right people. It’s easy to buy machinery and develop packaging, but its is extremely challenging to recruit the best staff, but we’re nearly there with that.”

As Sweetdreams now looks beyond the UK North-South border it is working on establishing strong distribution partnerships to bring the product to market. One particular recent success has been to get listed with Bonds Confectionery as the first company in its three-for-a-pound range to retain its original Choc Nibbles brand.

If the last 18 months have been about reshaping the business, the next are

about deploying it to achieve growth.

Even throughout the investment stage Sweetdreams hit 10 per cent growth, and Stephenson is confident of meeting this target again in the next year. “It’s now all about bringing these things together and sweating the assets in a controlled way to achieve our growth targets,” he comments. “I made the strategic decision 18 months ago to

The Northumberland confectioner is taking sure steps towards becoming a strong player in the UK value confectionery market. A lot of hard work has been put into getting the Sweetdreams to a position from which it can grow and initial results appear to be positive. As Matthew concludes: “It’s an exciting time for us and because its such a unique product is exciting for our buyers as well,

double the business in five years and we’re taking small steps to making this a reality. It will be tough but I think we will get very close to achieving it.”

because we have something that can give them the correct margins that they can’t get else where.” D www.chocnibbles.co.uk

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Full of beans

F The oldest coffee company in Germany, J.J. Darboven Specialty Coffees, based in Hamburg, has devotees around the globe

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ounded in 1866 as a local provider of roasted coffee for German households, today J.J. Darboven has a strong national presence and includes 14 companies in nine European nations, mainly bordering Germany. The company roasts high-quality arabica and robusta coffees and offers 50 coffee selections including singleorigins, certified organics, Fair Trade, proprietary blends, and the famous coffee, IDEE KAFFEE, which is being sold under the J.J. Darboven umbrella brand.

The most popular other sub-brands under the J.J. Darboven name include: EILLES Kaffee, Mövenpick, Café Intención, and Alfredo Espresso, with the latter being the most sold Espresso in the German hotel and restaurant industry.

As recently as September 2015, IDEE KAFFEE underwent a comprehensive brand re-launch, with redesigned packaging and a new TV advertising campaign. “The aim of the re-launch is to increase the visibility of IDEE KAFFEE back into the consciousness of the end user. In

addition, we want to be perceived as an attractive and modern brand for a younger target group. At the same time we can highlight the particulars and values of the brand,” explains Frank Hilgenberg of J. J. Darboven. The new pack design offers a contemporary and trendy look that is gradually being transferred to the entire range.

Connected to the brand re-launch is also the introduction of a new logo in the form of a coffee bean. It stands across the orientation and attitude of the company and communicates the important issue of social responsibility, or the ‘J.J. Darboven Responsibility’ as the company refers to it.

In fact, J.J. Darboven is dedicated to conducting business in a manner that balances economic goals with environmental and social impacts on local and global communities.

From work initiated by the company’s environmental committee, to the programmes undertaken at home and in coffee producing countries, Darboven strives to make a positive difference in the communities where it operates and does business. The company engages in several cultural and social community programmes, and offers an endowment to striving female entrepreneurs. This award alternates yearly between J.J. Darboven’s German and Polish locations, enabling each to support entrepreneurship and ambition in the local area.

Strong brand Specialty coffee is becoming increasingly popular in Germany and what sets J.J. Darboven apart from its competitors in its market are the premium brands that it manufactures.

The majority of J.J. Darboven revenues are derived from its food service operation for hotels and restaurants, and its wholesale operation that serves supermarkets and other locations where fine coffees are sold. An important addition to the food service and wholesale operations is an enterprise that exclusively caters to offices.

J.J. Darboven is the market leader for coffee and tea in the German

‘

J.J. Darboven

Only through sustained action can we preserve the resources that we need, so that in our globalised world, all people can enjoy life

Albert Darboven, owner of J.J. Darboven

out of home market and thousands of accounts served indirectly by the national supermarket chains, the popularity of J.J. Darboven and its brands, and the strength of its name recognition are being leveraged to support continued growth.

The business is already working with highly regarded, blue chip clients such as Hilton, Deutsche Lufthansa, Sodexho, Metro, REWE, EDEKA, Tui Cruises, Mitchel & Buttlers, Kempinski, Fairmont, Air Berlin, and many others that underline the strong foundations of the organisation.

Alongside its food service and wholesale offering, J.J. Darboven also operates a small specialty gourmet shop chain under the name of J. Eilles. These shops concentrate on

specialty teas, coffees, chocolates and wines. In 2003 a new addition, designed to complement the other operations was launched. This is an e-commerce website (www.gourvita.com) that offers more than 3500 products, including a large selection of coffees and teas, fine delicatessen products and confectionery.

Its range is one of the most extensive available online, and the company prides itself on ensuring it offers only the best and freshest of offerings to its clients, which it considers to be true food ‘connoisseurs’.

While J.J. Darboven may have roots that start in the 1800s, it has thrived and prospered due to a willingness to embrace innovation and move with the times, as illustrated by the launch of Gourvita.com. It is positioned for continued growth, thanks to major investments in its enterprise-wide information system, the expansion of its central production and distribution facility, sales and support personnel, and marketing – all designed to support sustained development.

The company has also developed a multi-channel distribution strategy to provide clients with widespread exposure to the brands in a variety of settings, as well as ease of access to the product, and many tasting opportunities for ‘consumer trial by the cup’, which subsequently leads to demand for sales. The interrelationship between recognisable presence in the hotel and restaurant segment, the supermarket chains, the offices, and the internet is designed to increase consumer awareness as well as the brand equity efficiency.

The organisation is also keen to ensure that the new innovations created by the talented staff in its research and development operations are shared

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with the right audience of buyers and tasters. For example in September 2015, Darboven had a stand at iba - the world’s leading trade fair for bakers and confectioners in Munich. Its presence at RAKO Group J.J. Darboven and the RAKO Group can look back to 20 years of a very successful business relationship.

Especially in developing, creating and advising new product innovations RAKO is the partner to choose.

Seasonality and the associated need for flexibility are of great importance, especially in the food sector.

Whether sausages or ice cream - the products must be produced quickly and delivered to the supermarket shelf. The food specialists of the RAKO Group will provide you with expert advice when it comes to finding and implementing the perfect product for your requirements - regardless of whether this concerns digital or traditional printing solutions.

Two of its production sites focus exclusively on the production of labels for the food industry.

86 www.foodchainmagazine.com

the show was used to present the latest innovations and the extensive product and service offerings for the bakery and confectionery sectors.

In the coffee sector, there were several focal points including the Burkhof brand that was showing its new varieties and a fresh new look that more reflects its Bavarian origin.

New flavours J.J. Darboven also presented value concepts such J.HORNIG, the quality and lifestyle-oriented specialty coffee from Austria, and the classic Alfredo Espresso, which is already an integral part of the coffee supply in many bakers and confectioners.

The stand was rounded out by additional beverages - cocoa and tea - through the brands COCAYA and EILLES TEA. New flavours were launched, many of which emphasised

J.J. Darboven

Darboven’s dedication to organic and fair-trade products. The company has pioneered these particular areas for many years and has a growing number of products in the range. Both organic and fair-trade products are growing in importance for bakers, since they can enhance their hot drinks offerings

with these credentials. “Flexibility and individually tailored offers are at the centre of what J.J. Darboven does, so that with our brand concepts and our finely tuned services we can respond accurately to our customers needs,” added Frank. In fact, the philosphies associated with the fair trade and

organic movements were also close to the heart of Darboven’s legendary and visionary owner, Albert Darboven, who stated: “Only through sustained action can we preserve the resources that we need, so that in our globalised world, all people can enjoy life.” D www.darboven.com

Goglio Goglio is a leading, globally operating solutions provider with a clear focus on coffee.

Offering the complete Fresco solution, it is the company that knows most about the four most important elements during the packing of coffee: material, machine, valve and last but not least, people.

Goglio North Europe has collaborated together with J.J. Darboven regarding the run-ability of materials on one of its lines. Thanks to their combined efforts, a simple and economic solution was found that has since become the standard in the industry.

www.foodchainmagazine.com 87

Master crafted

With roots dating back to the 19th century, Aldaris operates as a leading traditional brewery company within Latvia and the Baltic states

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Aldaris

T

he year 1865 was a period of several firsts and great opportunity around the world, signalling events such as the end of the American Civil War, the transmission of the world’s first fax message and the publication of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland.’

In the same year Latvian brewer, Janis Dauders built the Waldschlösschen, or Forest Castle, in a Riga suburb. By 1906 the facility represented the most modern brewery in Europe and in 1937 the state joint-stock company Aldaris was established.

Today Aldaris is part of the Carlsberg Group, which became the sole owner of the business in 2008 and represents the largest producer of beer in Eastern and Northern Europe and the fourth largest in Europe. As of 2015 Aldaris is able to celebrate a century and a half of brewing heritage and presently provides a diverse range of beverages comprised of local and imported beers, ciders, long drinks, water, soft drinks and energy drinks. The brand portfolio of imported beers overseen by Aldaris for example, is comprised of some of the world’s most recognised beverages such as Carlsberg, Tuborg, Baltika, Staropramen and Grimbergen.

Throughout its history, Aldaris has continually worked to ensure that provides a premium level of quality and a brand porfolio that reflects the requirements of the market. During September 2013, in response to in-depth analysis of the Latvian beer market, Aldaris announced a change in strategy to focus of the production of craft and premium beer. As part of its new strategy Aldaris further announced the investment of €3 million into the reopening of its historic brewery for the development of several new craft beers, as well continued focus on efficiency

initiatives. Data collected by AC Nielson has demonstrated that the premium and craft beer segment is constantly growing in Latvia, for example since 2009 the craft beer segment has grown by 50 per cent and already represents more than 14 per cent of the total market.

Prior to 2013 Aldaris had not been present within the craft beer segment, however following the decision to approach this market the brewery was able to begin the development of exclusive craft beer in glass bottles and kegs. Commenting on the announcement of the development of its new beers, Aldaris CEO Veli Pekka Tennila said: “We strongly believe that consumers will appreciate the highest quality craft beer created in Aldaris historic brewery. Our analysis shows that demand for craft beer

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The art of brewing

ZIP Technologies, a premier manufacturer of brewing equipment, has been designing, manufacturing and commissioning automated, modern equipment for over 20 years. ZIP provides complete, turnkey brewing solutions for the brewpub, craft brewery and microbrewery industries.

The company is based in Hungary and prides itself on its spirited and quality-oriented approach.

Brewing equipment developed by ZIP is forward thinking, and makes brewing enjoyable and seamless, bringing to small scale the technology, consistency, automation and control usually enjoyed only by the mammoth breweries.

ZIP’s full spectrum of services includes: »» Customer-oriented equipment design and manufacturing »» Engineering plans and equipment layout »» Business plan for the brewery »» Beer recipe development »» Raw materials sourcing »» Complete assembling and commissioning of the brewery at site »» Personnel training »» Equipment warrantee and after sales service All in all, ZIP is a multinational creative company, that brings together people infatuated with what they do, with an enthusiastic and trailblazing, can-do attitude.

www.zipbier.com

ZIP by the NUMBERS »» »» »»

»» »»

22 years in the brewing industry over 125 operating ZIP breweries

world

all over the

31 engineers on the team – including mechanical, electrical engineers, food and beverage processing engineers 60 specialists (welders, technicians, electricians, fitting specialists) in the plant 7 000 m2 of manufacturing space

Aldaris is still growing and consumer needs are not fully satisfied. With the opening of historic brewery we see Aldaris becoming one of the best craft beer breweries in the region.”

By February 2014 Aldaris had received the new equipment, valued at €1.3 million necessary to brew craft beer.

In a press release published in February ˇ 2014, Valdis Cunka, Aldaris brewing master commented: “We are now on the homestretch and we will soon offer new exclusive craft beers to our clients.

In total we have brewed more than 30 samples of different beers, from which only three best ones were selected by beer fans during tasting. As re-launching the old brewery is a historic event for us, we will offer beer fans to choose the most suitable names for the new craft beers, like in 1937, when the names of beer - were brands like Gaišputis and Tumšlase chosen in a popular vote.”

The new beer will be made available in 0.5l and 0.33l bottles, as well as kegs in a specialist brewery, where most of the brewing will be done manually.

Furthermore, existing brands of Aldaris beer will also be brewed at newly re-opened historic brewery. Aldaris also plans to use Latvian malt to brew its special craft beers and is currently working with suppliers to develop the first experimental batch of malt to be sure of its quality. As such, Aldaris is placed to become the first Latvian

brewery to use Latvian-produced malt in several years, as previously it was not possible to use local material owing to the lack of a malthouse in country, whereas today Latraps will produce malt in Latvia. “I think that beer fans will greatly appreciate our beer brands produced in the historic brewery, because we see that more and more consumers prefer craft beer brands, which should be enjoyed slowly, without haste. The same trend can be seen also elsewhere in the world,” Valdis notes.

Further to the on-going development of its craft beers, Aldaris has continued to enjoy great success with existing product portfolio. During September 2014 for example, it was announced that the company’s Aldaris Porteris porter beer had been recognised as Europe’s premier strong porter beer, winning a gold medal at the prestigious World Beer Awards. “We are proud of this achievement because the evaluation was very scrupulous and the competition tough. A team consisting of several dozens of experts evaluated beers in a blind tasting, paying particular attention to nuances like colour, aroma, foam and taste,” Valdis says.

The brewing technology of Aldaris

Porter is unique, as it uses a special combination of beer ingredients including caramel malt, hops and a special degree of fermentation that is typical of the Baltic States. The result is a beer with a combination of bitterness, sweetness and fermentation that cannot be found in any other part of the world.

In building on the success of its unique porter, Aldaris has also announced the imminent arrival of a new 24-month aged porter during late 2015. Forty thousand litres of this special porter have been brewed and are currently aging.

Previously during late 2013 the company released a 12-month aged Porteris Ekskluzivais beer, which proved to be highly popular. With the upcoming release of its range of craft beers and its specialty porter, Aldaris is set to provide its clients with a premium range of beverages to suit all tastes over the coming months. “Like a wine, a properly brewed and aged beer becomes even better over time, getting a special taste and aroma. Therefore, in the second half of 2015 beer fans will be offered a unique, two years old Aldara Porteris,” Valdis concludes. “This will be certainly the first beer in Latvia having made such a long way from a brewing tank to consumers.” D www.aldaris.lv

ZIP Collaborating with the world-renowned Aldaris from Carlsberg group was a great honour for ZIP. As craft beer enthusiasts and an experienced manufacturer of micro-brewery equipment, ZIP’s team did their best supporting Aldaris’ intention to invest in craft beer.

ZIP created brewing equipment that would align with the high standards of the Aldaris product: reliable, with latest technologies and engineering knowledge, accurate in every detail and precise in every step of operation. Just what was required to complete the list of Aldaris beers with new craft beers.

It was a perfect example of synergy between two companies, infatuated with what they do and in constant innovation.

www.foodchainmagazine.com 91

A quality offering

Remaining committed to its values of quality and collaboration has proven to be successful for London based caterer Just Hospitality and a careful approach to growth is set to secure more of the same in the future

J

Follow us on Twitter @JustHospitality

Moni Habib Photography

92 www.foodchainmagazine.com

ust Hospitality has been operating within London now for ten years and, despite being hit hard by the economic crash in 2008, the company has grown steadily and committedly to become a unique player in the contract catering market, with some major global names in its client list.

“Before 2008 a lot of our clients were Icelandic so when the Icelandic economy collapsed alongside the global financial crisis, we lost 90 per cent of our business over night,” outlines MD, Dean Kennett.

“However, instead of moving on, we hung on with three staff and over the following years continued working according to our values, which are not cutting corners and serving fresh, quality food. We stuck to our principles and this has kept us in the game.”

Bringing on new clients in the legal and finance industries, and later tech media firms, the business began to gather pace and Just Hospitality moved to a new premises with a 3000 square foot production kitchen and office space and now turns out 800 to 1200 meals a day courtesy of 50 staff. Generating £4 million in turnover a year, the company’s core business is in contract catering, but supports this through events catering and commercial outlets such as

cafes, tearooms and the William Morris Gallery.

“We’re good listeners,” highlights Dean.

“Like any business you have to be able to deliver on what the client is asking and this has been central to our business from the start. We don’t have any red tape with a flat management structure, so teams are free to make decisions on the ground, according to our guidance, when servicing the clients. This can take time in larger organisations and opportunities can be missed so this gives us a competitive edge in a fiercely competitive market.”

Working within labour-competitive markets such as tech media, companies are pulling out all the stops to retain talent, and part of this strategy is to run free food programmes. A particular example of Just Hospitality’s ability to listen closely to its customers and offer a quality service is its relationship with social media giant Twitter. “Their brief didn’t match up exactly to what we were offering at the time,” says Dean.

“However, we saw beyond that and gave them a plan of how we would build a food programme for them. This has since been rolled out and delivered under budget and their management are happy to entrust in us that responsibility, which is a very important perk for their

Just Hospitality employees. This has lead to further growth and referrals to other clients.”

With regards to the company’s food offering, Dean sums it up as simply “healthy, stay-awake food,” and Just Hospitality delivers this with fresh, well-sourced, seasonal ingredients and menus. “Again we have to listen to our clients’ needs and deliver healthy, well balanced and varied menus with some treats throughout the week,” he continues. “We also hold the ‘field-to-fork’ value as core in our business and so we do a lot in terms of the provenance of food. In short, we work with farm assured suppliers, and look to them as friends rather than merely suppliers. Therefore, we embark on a journey that we both agree to work together on developing and improving as the years go by, so that

where we get our produce from, that we know the people, and that we understand their challenges as well. It’s a really wellregarded collaboration, which the clients like and everyone benefits from.”

This collaboration continues beyond supplier relationships into offering a diverse and technically unlimited food range. Born partly out of a need to stay ahead of fast moving high street trends and to take a different angle from its competitors, Just Hospitality actively seeks support from specialists within the catering industry. “A lot of big players will take on 100 per cent of the work in a contract, but we will happily give some of that away to specialists, which allows us to vary the offer to the client and keeps it fresh and different,” points out Dean. “Again, our clients like to see this collaboration with

when we do well, so do they. We also gain a lot of education from opening up these discussions, and I’ve taken clients to the farms so that they can see that we know

smaller suppliers and companies and it gives us a leading position.”

Aside from offering sustainable and quality food, both collaboration and

Ashby’s started life as a family business and is still owned by that same family today...

the ability to listen are core pillars to the company’s outward integrity and inward strength. “People are our greatest asset,” says Dean, “and we are soon to hold our third AGM to sit down with everyone and talk together about our goals for next year and how we are going to move forward.”

This exemplary attitude to collective thinking is enhanced by a smart and principled strategy to growth.

“By taking on contracts that we can see will give us a good return has armoured us over the last couple of years and this will be a feature of our next steps,” concludes Dean.

“We work in a competitive market so we have to grow in a steady and controlled manner.

Therefore, we are looking at consolidating our existing markets as well as exploring potential in Ireland as current clients are talking to us about other offices. Ultimately, we will be taking safe and sustainable steps to become a caterer of choice up there with some of the big players.” D www.justhospitality.co.uk

We have been trading since 1883, initially as a retailer and over the last 40 years as a wholesaler to the catering trade.

Now run by Tracey Willbourne, the great-granddaughter of the founder of HS Linwood & Sons.

The family ethos is still as strong today: Customer Care which is second to None, Family run business established in London: A Company where ‘the extra mile’ is much more than a catchphrase

Ashby’s supply big named commercial organizations, restaurants, independent caterers as well as private individuals in the City, West End and throughout London and its suburbs.

We offer a unique service to all our customers that a well established family run business can achieve, which is individual, personal, friendly, professional and prompt.

Our fleet of liveried refrigerated delivery vans are on the road from Monday to Friday, endeavouring to make all deliveries by 11:00am however, in order to meet the needs of our broad range of customers we try, where possible, to cater for earlier or later deliveries and can offer a second delivery service when necessary T: 020 7231 4568 (24hrs) F: 020 7252 3466 E: Sales@rsashby.co.uk 37/22 Crimsott Street London, SE1 5TE

What we do: Suppliers of Fresh and Frozen Fish, Shellfish and Speciality Products to the Catering Trade.

Why choose Us? Over 130 years experience of supplying the best quality fish products Products available across the City of London, West End and North London.

Website: Linwood1883.co.uk Follow us at: @LinwoodHS @1883Fish and FB: H S Linwood & Sons Ltd HS Linwood & Sons Ltd are proud to supply

www.rsashby.co.uk

www.foodchainmagazine.com 93

Top

draft

With over four decades of industry experience in supplying clients within the brewing industry, Morrow Brothers Ltd has established itself as a world leader in cask and keg refurbishment

94 www.foodchainmagazine.com

B

rothers Alan and David Morrow founded the company to provide repair and refurbishing services for kegs and casks within the brewing industry. Over the years Morrow Brothers Limited has continued to grow and expand its product portfolio, today providing a comprehensive range of containers, extractor tubes and snapcaps. “My father and his brother set up the business in 1969, as up until that time no similar such business existed,” elaborates Director, Liam Morrow.

“Previously what happened when kegs or casks began to leak is that they were sent to the manufacturer and exchanged at scrap value on a pro rata basis against the purchase of new ones. This was fairly inefficient and not very economical compared to repair and reconditioning. A further benefit of this, although this was perhaps not as considered during the 1960s, is that it is also a relatively green approach. The business has continued to grow through industry trends of growth and decline and today employs 25 people across three sites.”

Further to its existing business, Morrow Brothers Ltd has recently expanded its service portfolio to include bottling

operations, with the establishment of Morrow Brothers Packaging Ltd. The new business includes a new facility, based in Buckshaw Village and will operate as a contract bottling plant providing bottling, labelling and packaging services, as well as further distributing products for speciality beverage manufacturers. Much like his father before him, Liam initiated the establishment of the business in response to market demand, further solidifying the company’s reputation as a pioneering market leader. “The new business was set up on the back of customer requests from the smaller microbrewers that we deal with and supply casks to,” Liam reveals. “Within the brewing industry at present there is a chronic shortage of contract bottling. For example when you speak to the owners of most contract bottling plants, their capacity is full for the next three months.

Additionally, at the lower level volume the metric of 50-60 barrels downward, the quality can be a bit hit and miss. What we are trying to do with this business is provide a gold standard of bottling at that lower level.”

HSBC Commercial Banking provided £355,000 in equipment finance and a term loan to expedite the establishment

Morrow Brothers of the new venture. Morrow Brothers Packaging currently employs five dedicated staff and has been in operation for three weeks at time of writing. As a significant investment and a highly anticipated development within the specialist brewing sector, Liam is confident that the business will develop quickly in the coming months. “As a family business and SME wanting to grow in the region, the new plant at Buckshaw Village is an extremely important step for us,” he says. “Morrow Brothers Packaging Ltd will provide our clientele with a one-stop-shop for keg servicing repairs and bottling of beverages for leading breweries, including manufacturers of craft beer, lager and cider, that require expert care for their packaging and bottling process.”

New Zealand. Within the UK the present market is increasingly driven by the growing popularity of craft and specialist beers, which has in turn increased the demand of Morrow Brothers products from a growing base of microbrewers.

“We operate in a very parochial industry,” Liam says. “Customers will contact us after hearing about the company from other supply chain representatives.

For example, we had a visit from a representative of AB Vickers who had brought with them a head brewer and they were impressed enough to send down some beer on a trial basis with a view to send more down the track once we demonstrate that we can do what we intend to do. The UK over the past few years has been very cask driven by microbrewers, although there is very

revenue stream where they can control the margins, as well as develop an expanded brand portfolio.”

Over the coming years Morrow Brothers Ltd will continue develop its service offering and consider new investments that will enable it to further support the brewing industry. “The next phase will be to offer our own contract kegging facility, which is an obvious fit with our keg business. This will enable us to provide the keg while the customer supplies the beer, once the keg is full it can be delivered to wherever it is required,” Liam says. “Over the next 12 months we will naturally focus on getting the bottling plant up and running. As a family business we are able to move our strategy quickly and that independence also means that we are not tied into a particular supply chain, we can almost

Over the years Morrow Brothers Ltd has delivered products to clients across the UK as well as globally, particularly within Africa, Jamaica, Australia and

much a trend towards providing keg beers particularly in London. This is of benefit to brewers who are also bar owners as they are able to add a new

chop and choose and select what we feel is the best option in the market,” he concludes. D

Tele: 01937 841270 Web: www.gpsil.com

www.morrow-brothers.com

Contact: T: 0776 013 5744 E: dave@amberthermal.com

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GPS Instrumentation LTD Distributors of Titration Equipment, Refractometers and Density Meters GPS Instrumentation Ltd is the exclusive distributor of Density meters, refractometers, titration equipment and measuring products for KEM Electronics Manufacturing in the UK and Ireland.

We specialise in applications for Brewing and Distilling, Food, Oil and Petrochemical, Fragrance and Flavours industries.

Our density meters measure density, specific gravity, concentration, alcohol (OIML and HMC&E), baum degrees, API degrees, twaddell degrees and milk degrees.

Alcoholic Beverages: ● ABV ● OG ● PG ● BRIX Food: ● Salt ● FFA ● SO2 ● Vit. C ● Msg ● Ca2+ ● Acidity ● I2 Value Oil: ● Bromine number Chloride ● Mercaptan sulphur ● TAN/TBN ● Water

Insulation specialists to the food, dairy, beverage and pharmaceutical industries.

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Based in the north west of England we are able to offer a service to cover the whole country.

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Scaling up As the global demand for farmed fish rises, EWOS continues its committed approach to driving innovation forward in order to improve fish health and sustainability in the seafood industry

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eginning life as a trading company of nutrients to the Swedish agricultural industry in 1931, EWOS (Group) has grown steadily through new market entry to become the leading global producer of feed to the aquaculture sector.

Predominantly serving the fledgling salmon farming industry, the company operates from seven sites in five countries and has established a reputation in the market for innovation. As global demand increases for aquaculture and fish feed, EWOS continues its driven commitment to delivering high quality and innovative solutions to help improve and bolster the health and growth of fish stocks.

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Based in Chile, Canada, Scotland, Norway and Vietnam, EWOS is well placed to serve the world’s biggest aquaculture markets, making the most of robust infrastructure networks already in place. “Fish feed is a volume product, which needs to have proximity to the customers and the market because distribution contributes a big proportion of the feed’s cost in all markets,” explains CEO, Einar Wathne. Across these sites the company has a total of 22 fish feed production lines, mostly for salmon but also for other white fish needs. Einar outlines the general process: “We use the same basic technology called ‘extrusion technology’ to make the feed, which

allows us to make very clean pellets with no dust. We can also regulate the sinking speed so that the fish can eat everything and we minimise wastage. The process gives us good flexibility with what ingredients and composition we would like to achieve in the feeds. For instance, we develop very targeted solutions for each individual fish species and for each stage in the fish life. We call this the life cycle approach to nutrition.”

This responsible approach to delivering high quality and sustainable solutions is inherent throughout EWOS’ operations, and its ‘Innovation’ division most aptly highlights this. “Our R&D division focuses on the continuous improvement of feed in terms of the main properties we are looking for,” highlights Einar. “These are to have the most efficient feed, to get the fish to grow as fast as possible and to provide a healthy and robust fish that can survive diseases and parasites. We also do a lot of testing with alternative ingredients from which we can make feed to sustain a long-term supply without suppressing natural resources.”

In February 2015 EWOS began construction of its new Fish Health Centre in Puerto Montt, Chile. Due to be completed at the start of 2016 the new innovation facility is the biggest investment into research and development made by a private operator in the aqua industry at NOK 80 million (USD 9.5 million). “What is special about this centre is that it will enable us to work with the health of the fish in a very systematic way,” says Einar.

“We know that good nutrition and certain functional components, which are all non-medicinal, can strengthen the health of the fish. We call these preventative and sustainable solutions.

They are completely natural solutions with no contamination from medication or chemical, it purely strengthens the natural defence of the fish.” Tested under controlled and contained conditions, EWOS hopes to deliver strong results to the industry from the site within two to three years of opening, with a major

EWOS (Group) focus on reducing sea lice effects and other marine diseases. Astonishingly the new facility not only increases the company’s research capacity by four to five times, but also increases the global research capacity by 30 per cent.

One particular area of investigation that will be expanded by the new site is the company’s research into reducing the harmful effects of sea lice in the salmon industry. “Sea lice is naturally present in the marine environment and thus on wild salmon. When you start farming, you have a higher concentration of fish and this increases the potential for parasites to attach,” explains Einar. “We have added some masking components to the feed that produce a different odour of the salmon so that we cheat the lice and it passes by the salmon. We call this the ‘anti-attachment solution’ and it has shown to be very effective reducing sea lice attachment by 30-50 per cent. In addition to this we have developed the

feed to improve the fishes own immune system to enable the fish to better fight the parasites with its own defence system.” Another important research area is into raw material availability and sustainability, by looking at novel feed ingredients like algae oil or ensure that no trimmings from the fillet industry are wasted, in order to sustain growth and minimise the environmental impact.

On the journey to achieving its vision of ‘seafood for generations’, EWOS leads the way in delivering a healthy and sustainable future for the seafood industry and currently has its sights set on applying its expertise to the shrimp-farming sector.

As for the next 12 months, Einar outlines a major strategic reshuffle to help direct the business towards this vision: “We have an extensive improvement programme in place for the way we execute our own business, which goes through the entire business including how and where we source our raw materials, how we manage logistics, how we run our factories, how we operate commercially and how we execute our R&D. We think it is extremely important with our knowledge we contribute to the wider understanding in the seafood industry. We have a lot of good messengers in place to convey that in order to provide for and support the growth in seafood consumption around the world.” D www.ewos.com

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Starwood Hotels

Global

hospitality Expansion is top of the agenda for global hotel and resort group Starwood Hotels in a strategy that will see its UK footprint grow considerably

W Bartech Bartech’s innovative eDrawer provides hoteliers with one of the most seamless and convenient minibar designs ever created. The eDrawer serves as an inconspicuous, furniture-based minibar system that can blend in seamlessly with a guestroom’s unique design. As a concept that embraces minimalism, the eDrawer is also ideal for guestrooms that are limited on space and are not suited to cater guests with a more typical minibar option.

Providing both a cold cube drawer and a dry section, the eDrawer presents guests with multiple choices for food and drinks. The eDrawer is available in any finish and a choice of materials.

ith 1270 properties, employing over 180,000 people across 100 countries it will not come as a surprise that Starwood Hotels is one of the largest and leading hotel companies in the world. Under a number of internationally renowned brands, like The Luxury Collection, Le Méridien, Sheraton, W Hotels and Aloft, the company caters for a number of needs with hotels and resorts providing economy-grade to luxury havens for any corporate or leisure customer.

Customer service inevitably plays a key role in Starwood’s portfolio, but equally valued is its commitment to both the staff and many communities that it engages with across its global footprint.

For instance the group currently has a global commitment to achieve a 30 per cent reduction in energy consumption and emissions, plus a 20 per cent water reduction across all properties by 2020, and has raised over $30 million through its partnership with UNICEF since 1995.

At present Starwood Hotels is represented by 12 luxury hotels in the UK and Ireland. These include Sheratons, Alofts, independent Tribute Portfolio and Luxury Collection hotels, a W Hotel and a Westin Hotel dotted across London, Liverpool, Scotland and Ireland. However, in line with the company’s global expansion strategy – it signed 175 new sites across the world in 2014 alone – Starwood Hotels has ambitious plans to increase this number, starting with opening a number of key sites over the next two years.

In August 2015, the company’s Sheraton brand launched its new premier tier of hotels, named Sheraton Grand. With the first phase initiated by ten new hotel signings, the vision for the division is to have 50 newly-designed hotels around the world by 2016 and a total of 100 by early 2017. Part of Sheraton 2020, a set of initiatives set out to establish the hotel as a leading global brand over the next five years, the announcement comes alongside other

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Starwood Hotels plans, such as a $100 million marketing campaign and visual rebranding.

Amongst the first ten hotels to be signed under the new programme, which stretches across the world from the US to Asia, is the Sheraton Grand Edinburgh in the heart of the Scottish capital.

Exemplifying Starwood’s reputation for luxury and exclusivity, the hotel boasts dramatic views of the Edinburgh castle, an award-winning spa and a unique British cuisine restaurant, serving over 60 premium varieties of gin.

A month later in September, Starwoods announced the entry of its Tribute Portfolio brand into the European market with the signing of Great Northern Hotel at King’s Cross, London. The Tribute Portfolio brings together a collection of outstanding independent hotels and resorts from across the world, with the key focus of retaining the independent operation and reputation earned over long and

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successful histories. The Great Northern Hotel was first opened in 1854 and has since undergone an immaculate restoration to retain its luxurious heritage, and upon relaunching in 2013 under the ownership of Jeremy Robson, has become one of the capital’s finest boutique hotels. Adhering to this history, the hotel provides a variety of catering options for its guests with the Plum + Split Milk restaurant serving fine British cuisine, and the GNH Bar, one of Europe’s most glamorous railway bars, which offers signature cocktail such as the Lady Violet in a classical and stylish setting.

The announcement of the Great Northern Hotel came soon after the launch of the Tribute Portfolio brand in April 2015, and the brand’s ambitions show clear correlation with Starwood’s overarching expansion strategy, with an aim to have 100 hotels under the brand by 2020. Commenting on the

new signing, Dave Marr, Global Brand Leader for Tribute Portfolio says: “The hotel has been designed with meticulous attention to detail, and we’re excited to partner alongside Mr. Jeremy Robson as he continues to bring his independent vision to life.”

Continuing this expansion programme in the UK, in 2017 two more hotels will be opened on London’s Tobacco Docks under the Aloft and Element brands.

With 100 hotels opened and planned in 14 countries across the globe, the Aloft brand makes a departure from the traditional hotel experience with a techforward, vibrant experience and modern style. Similarly, Element hotels mark an innovation within the hotel industry in its sustainable and natural approach to hospitality. The brand offers stylish settings complete with healthy breakfast offerings, saline swimming pools, spacious fitness centres and electric vehicle charging points. In 2008 Element Hotels made history in being the first hotel brand to pursue LEED certification for high-performance buildings across a complete brand. This will be the first Element hotel to open in the UK and again conforms to Starwood’s rapid expansion plans.

As far as the future is concerned, Starwood Hotels is very much focused on continuing expansion and growing its already extensive brand and hotel portfolio. Achieving this success will come in a number of ways, but by remaining aware of key global trends and continuing to integrate into its local communities will undoubtedly feature heavily in the company’s values as it moves forward. D www.starwoodhotels.com

FoodChain The business of food and drink

Schofield Publishing Ltd

10 Cringleford Business Centre Intwood Road l Cringleford l Norwich l NR4 6AU T: +44 (0)1603 274130 | F: +44 (0)1603 274131 Editor Libbie Hammond libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Manager Joe Woolsgrove jwoolsgrove@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Rob Wagner rwagner@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

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Professional Pastry Chefs tell us they prefer Tate & Lyle Caster and Icing Sugar*

www.sugarandsyrup.com * Based on research carried out by MMR Research Worldwide for Tate & Lyle Sugars in April 2014, out of 202 UK-based Pastry Chefs interviewed, 30 used www.foodchain-magazine.com 68% Tate & Lyle’s Caster and Icing sugars for baking.

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