Advanced Packaging System Slashes Costs

Frutos Secos de la Vega reports impressive cost reduction and extended shelf life of its nut and dried fruit products, and as a result they are successfully targeting new international markets.

14/04/09 When a leading European dried-fruit processing company, Frutos Secos de la Vega, Spain, needed to solve a shelf-life problem, it turned to Hefestus, Ltd. installing Hercules, its newest packaging system, an automatic modified-atmosphere packaging (MAP) sealing machine, based on SLB “Shelf Life Booster”, Hefestus’ proprietary packaging technology. Today, the leading Spanish company reports impressive cost reduction and extended shelf life of its nut and dried fruit products, and as a result they are successfully targeting new international markets.

Frutos Secos de la Vega faced major problems as outcome of its products’ short shelf life, including a large amount of returns as well as discards of expired products. This was exacerbated by low speed production and short time to market.

“Vacuum packaging could not provide us a satisfying solution,” explains Fernando de la Vega, a partner and senior manager of FSV. “It could destroy the aesthetic appearance and texture of our products and further slow down the production pace.”

Implementing Hercules, Hefestus’ fastest packaging system, at FSV significantly extended shelf life for all the company’s products, dramatically decreasing returns. The production line works consecutively with balanced-plans production while providing maximum operative effectiveness.

“Our challenge was to improve product quality by extending shelf life, and to drastically cut production costs,” says Oded Shtemer, CEO of Hefestus, Israel. “The new Hercules packaging system is by far the best return on investment of its type in the market today. It can cut human resources costs and increase packaging pace exponentially. It also helps food manufacturers develop quality products and adjust them to the new economic challenges in the market place.”

“We expect to increase sales and gross profits in 2009 thanks to Hefestus’ new packaging system solution,” exclaims de la Vega. “Extending our product shelf life up to 300% as well as saving time to market influences the entire supply chain from manufacturer to consumer. The retailers and the consumers get product that looks better and feels fresher for a longer time.”

SLB represents a ground-breaking evolution in packaging technology. It significantly extends product shelf-life while maintaining the appearance, texture and freshness. SLB is a new generation of energy-efficient modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) that improves production speeds and operational simplicity while opening new market horizons.

Hefestus, Ltd., is a developer and manufacturer of top-sealing packaging machines. Hefestus specializes in supplying unique and complete packaging solutions for the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. It provides a wide variety of standard and custom-made machines, from manual to fully automatic lines, to meet the complex packaging requirements of processors and consumers.