Vitacuire Expands with Frigoscandia Freezer
Vitacuire, the French producer of specialist frozen snacks and pastries, has added the latest Frigoscandia GYRoCOMPACT® 60 Spiral Freezer to its manufacturing base in Meyzieu near Lyon.
Founded in 1952, Vitacuire is now a major player in a seasonal industry where 50 per cent of production takes place between September and December, providing retail, home service, food service and catering industries across Europe with a range of themed cocktail bites, petit fours and individual savoury pastries.
The company’s first Frigoscandia spiral freezer, which are designed and manufactured by JBT, was installed in 1989, followed soon after by two others. Following a recent strategy review, Jean-Yves Krief, son of founder Emile Krief, approached JBT once again to help him maximise and simplify production.
“Our first Frigoscandia spiral freezer allowed us to move to a continuous production line,” says Jean-Yves. “At the time it simplified the whole process as there was less handling and much higher levels of hygiene. It was also quite a challenge for us, as it represented a real revolution in working methods, but we’ve never looked back.”
The new GYRoCOMPACT 60 Spiral Freezer has enabled Vitacuire to re-organise its entire production line. With its compact design and low energy consumption, Jean-Yves Krief was able to increase versatility and maximise space in the production room.
“With the GYRoCOMPACT 60 and its new west/west orientation we saved two metres, which allowed us to reconfigure the entire line to make it more versatile. Versatility is a key word at Vitacuire because we produce a wide variety of products and need to change from one product to another very quickly in order to meet many different customer orders. The self-stacking structure has also enabled us to put maximum tiers in the allotted space. We can now treat 2.5 tons per hour of mini-cocktail bites and savoury pastries.”
With the new freezer the cleaning time will decrease significantly because the new GYRoCOMPACT 60 Spiral Freezer is more compact and easy to clean.
Due to its re-designed outfeed system and automatic lubrication system the drive power on the GYRoCOMPACT 60 Spiral Freezer has been reduced by 60 per cent compared to previous generations, resulting in low energy consumption and less risk of problems to the freezer’s components.
Production and installation of the new freezer was completed in only six months, with additional security provided by JBT’s PRoCARE® customer service package to anticipate or eliminate any problems that might disrupt the intensely busy pre-Christmas season for the family-owned company.
“At JBT we aim to become partners with our customers, so that we can work with them in expanding their businesses and improving their processes,” says Jean-Marc Le Cohué, JBT’s area sales manager for France and Belgium, for WorldBakers.com.
“Vitacuire were already familiar with our range of Frigoscandia Spiral Freezers, so we could either make upgrades to their existing equipment, or propose new systems. In this case, and to accommodate the increased product range, we installed a new freezer but configured it to fit in a smaller space. Our main challenges were to propose a flexible configuration, a capacity increase in the smallest possible space, and with a short installation time.
He added that GYRoCOMPACT 60 Spiral Freezer replaced an older generation model. Its configuration is much more adapted to Vitacuire’s needs, as it allows them to gain some room and reorganize the upstream and downstream lines.