Complete Bakery Lines Solutions

These days, everything is about ease and efficiency. So, it makes sense that bakeries would prefer to see one manufacturer or supplier when needing to install, or even update, a production line. As a result, there are more ‘co-operatives’ and ‘joint operations’ coming to the fore.

Offering the perfect bakery solution is not an easy thing. Each customer will have different requirements for whatever their main product might be.
Some want diversification in the types of bread produced, some want breads, rolls and other baked goods and others even demand a smaller carbon footprint as the main requirement.
But a one-stop shop would be the ideal – a baking equipment supplier who offers a turnkey solution.
The Netherlands-based Capway Systems, a leading supplier of automated and integrated bakery systems, has become known for its ability to provide tailor-made solutions for all types of automated bakery systems.
A Capway bread production line is made up of various components such as proofers, robot systems, de-panners, conveyors, bread coolers and cleaning equipment. All these components are also available for the up-grading and automation of already existing lines. Capway also offers dedicated bread production solutions in control programs and software for complete line management systems. Being a ‘solution provider’ the company can offer plant concepts which are used for so-called ‘mono product lines’ that are focused and optimised for the production of one type of bread.

Different types of bread on the same line 

But Capway also has the ability to realise production lines that can produce different types of breads on one and the same line – the ‘Cap-Flex plant’ concept. And it does not stop there.
Given that Capway’s strength lies in the supply and maintenance of conveyor belts, handling systems, depanning, proving cabinets, chilling and freezing systems, service, quality, product development and the provision of complete services, the most important driving forces within this is collaboration.
This collaboration’s success was recently shown by the two fully-automatic pastry lines brought into operation in Spain, and recently by an order from England for a complete high capacity pizza line, consisting of a Rademaker dough processing line and a complete Capway handling system.
Beyond this, Capway’s years of knowledge and experience in the area of complete automated bakery lines have now combined with Stalam’s expertise in the world of Radio Frequency and Microwave oven technology.
This has led to the first automated White-Crust bread line being installed successfully in Southern Europe.
And, at iba 2009, Capway and Stalam introduced the latest innovation in crustless baking – another result of their collaboration with Stalam.
“We see more bakeries forming bigger groups, resulting in closing down many old ones and opening fewer new plants with high capacity lines,” explains Leendert Verheul, marketing manager for Capway.
“And existing bakeries start to produce more hours with their existing, sometimes upgraded, equipment to have a much more efficient output. Therefore they can close down low capacity plants within their grouping and the neighbourhood of the upgraded production facility.”
Richard van Heukelum, commercial director for the Tromp Group, said: “In new markets, for example the Far East, there is also a need for technological support.
“Worldwide there will be a great demand for production lines with lower consumption of gas and electricity. For these issues we have solutions in our group. Den Boer has done the right development in the last couple of years. We are able to supply ovens with an energy use reduction of around 15 per cent.”

Total bakery solutions

The Tromp Group offers total bakery solutions, says their logo and with Tromp, Vanderpol baking systems and Den Boer ovens, this is exactly what they do.
Each company, says Van Heukelum, has its own speciality and stand alone equipment while ‘together we offer turnkey solutions’.
The joint venture, announced last year, has given Tromp Group a unique position with possibilities for further expansion.
The group’s sales offices and agents in Europe, Middle East, the US, Asia and Russia will play their part. And growth will occur here too.
“We want to have more of our own sales offices, for example, in Germany, Scandinavia, Russia and the Far East,” adds Van Heukelum.
The Tromp Group is supplying five concepts and within each concept a wide range of variation for end products is offered.
The focus is on production lines for cake and pies, waffles, pizzas, laminated dough and various bread lines.
“If you sell these as a standard concept, you are able to produce more efficiency,” suggests Richard van Heukelum.
“The quality and price are extremely good, the delivery fast and our references are more than fine.
“Of course our customers and baked end-product are always the focus of our group and we will never lose sight of this. Every year our sales team is intensively trained to explain this strategy to the market and this is how we can sell what we are making.”

Variations and nuances 

The Kaak Group in the Netherlands, with its 11 partner companies, can justifiably claim to be today’s answer to complex sales markets for bread and other baked products.
Highly-qualified experts in each subsidiary together focus on developing and providing optimal technical and technological variations and nuances for each product, be it mixed bread, toast, baguette, brioche or country-style breads. Within the Kaak Group, the subsidiaries combine the in-depth knowledge of all engineers and technologists in a flexible system which delivers tailor-made solutions without integration problems.
The result is authentic products made on tailor-made automated production lines which comply with the market’s requirements and are convincing in terms of economy and ecology.
At the heart of Kaak’s operations is its ‘project business’ which starts with partial lines and goes beyond this to the construction of complete production lines.
Said a company spokesman: “The engineering of production technology is always part of this business. But we also do product development, personnel training and the construction of building or supply engineering.”
And sometimes the Kaak team is with customers for years – particularly in young, less developed, markets where it is possible the group will design a production building, install a multi-functional plant, train the staff, provide a master baker who is not only responsible for the start-up operation but also heads the entire production for a few months.
The company has agents in Japan and Taiwan, servicing the Asia Pacific region.
The WP Bakery Group – with its portfolio of companies – has aligned itself with the needs of bakeries worldwide and is in a position to offer total solutions – from project development to equipping complete bakeries (handcraft and industrial) and sale of used machinery.
The central element of the group’s corporate philosophy is a networked way of thinking that stretches beyond the individual stages of production. The management calls it ‘process management’ which is the targeted management of the individual stages of production and the machines used within them – as fast and with as little loss of material as possible to achieve the desired result, even for small amounts – and the unlimited reproducibility of results achieved. Each unit can be operated as a ‘stand-alone’ but can also be easily ‘docked on’ at any time – interfaces for third-party products are sufficiently available.

Innovative products 

The complete WP line ensures reliable process management, the company assures clients.
Danish company DFE Meincke has more than 50 years of engineering knowledge and practical experience in developing new applications for customers.
Says CEO Frank Muntzberg: “With one supplier behind the complete solution, the customers get one project manager on the whole project and 100 per cent guarantee for the functionality.”
He also notes that within the past couple of years the company has invested more resources in becoming the primary choice for turnkey solutions. Combined with extending partner relations, this has helped increase the company’s focus on complete lines and turnkey solutions.
“As the consumer demand for innovative products increases and the products around the world become still more global, our customers need the most flexible lines for their production and at the same time they are looking more into developing the products.”
But has the economic situation of the past 18 months or so had any affect?
“Of course, with the economic situation orders are not flying in, but the market is still on the move,” says Capway’s Verheul. “We all eat our daily bread, don’t we? Maybe even more so now, instead of fancy snacks or other more expensive foods.
“Therefore, we still see a very good, growing market with a lot of possibilities for the next few years,” he continues. “Especially in Russia and the Middle East, but also in the Asian countries, like Malaysia, Thailand and China.”