After having struggled with far too high percentages of leakers, Van Roey J. nv decided that it was time to search for the appropriate solution for its packs of high-quality shrimp. This was found in a brand-new processing line with a SEALPAC RE25 thermoformer at its centrepiece. We spoke with Dirk van Roey, Managing Director at Van Roey, about the background of this project and the road to the innovative Gamba Packaging solution by SEALPAC.
Van Roey
Van Roey (www.vanroey.com), one of Belgium’s major processors of high-quality shrimp, was officially founded on 21 December 1973, meaning that the company just celebrated its 40th anniversary. With the founder’s son still running the firm, it can be regarded as a true family company. As Managing Director Dirk van Roey explains: “It was inevitable that I became involved in the company from a young age. Originally, my parents used to have a market stall where they sold all kinds of seafood. In the early seventies, my father decided to focus on shrimp, which lead to the foundation of Van Roey J. nv. About 33 years ago, I took over management.”
Located in a small street in Boechout, not far from Antwerp, Van Roey has built a production hall behind the house where the family used to live. Nowadays, this house is used as Van Roey’s office. A unique part of Van Roey’s approach is its process of cooking and cooling down the prawns. Van Roey: “Belgian customers do not accept fluids in their shrimp packs. We were able to set up our processing line in such a way that we can guarantee ‘dry’ content. In the end, this lead to an important contract with one of the major discount retailers in Belgium.”
Too many leakers
Around the year 2000, Van Roey started looking for a fully automated packaging line. It was then that the very first contact was established with SEALPAC. Van Roey: “We visited a Dutch customer packing sliced cheese on a SEALPAC traysealer. Although we could see the quality of the equipment, and became positive feedback from its owner, we had to take into account the limited space in our production area. As such, we were not fond of the idea of having to store pre-formed trays. At the time, SEALPAC did not have any thermoformers in its product portfolio, so we decided to purchase a
thermoformer elsewhere.”
Not long after installing this thermoformer, Van Roey started to become complaints from its customers with regard to the packs of large prawns. Their hollow antennas, in combination with the existing thermoformer’s standard technology, lead to leaking packs due to incorrect seals. Naturally, the supplier of the existing equipment was approached to find a solution, but simply did not respond. Van Roey: “With our prawns coming from a French trading company, I decided to ask this supplier for advice. They recommended a SEALPAC thermoformer with the special Gamba Packaging system, which had been running successfully at a shrimp processor in France. As soon as I hang up the telephone, I dialled the number of Ultrapak (www.ultrapak.nl), SEALPAC distributor in the Benelux. They happened to be travelling in Belgium, so we had our first meeting that same day.”
The benefits of Gamba Packaging
Obviously, Van Roey wanted to see the benefits of SEALPAC’s Gamba Packaging solution, originally developed for its traysealers, before ordering any equipment. Therefore, various tests were done at the SEALPAC factory in Emmen (NL). Van Roey: “Owing to the special Gamba Packaging system, as testing clearly showed, antennas and other body parts that lie over the sealing edge are cut off while being sealed. As such, they do not influence the sealing quality. Today, just 1 or 2 packs out of every 100 may have an incorrect seal. It used to be double digits with our previous line. Considering that we process around 700,000 prawns annually, it was easy to understand the payback of our investment in the SEALPAC thermoformer!”
Cost savings
The newly installed line at Van Roey starts with a loading and multi-head weighing system from Multipond. This system ensures that, depending on the pack size that is being run, 400g or 1,000g of shrimp are safely loaded into the formed pack on the SEALPAC RE25 thermoformer. The filled packs are then transported to the sealing station of the SEALPAC thermoformer, where they are securely sealed by means of the Gamba Packaging system. After being labelled by an ELS bottom web labelling system, and subsequently being cut both in cross- and longitudinal direction, the sealed packs go through a Mettler Toledo metal detection unit. Finally, every four packs are loaded into an attractive cardboard box. Van Roey: “After installing this new line, we were able to go from 7 operators to just 4 operators, as we used to have personnel at the line manually cutting off the antennas of the shrimp. They can now concentrate on product supply and end-of line packaging.“
Flexibility
Van Roey uses a 500 μm APET bottom film for its modified atmosphere packs. Van Roey: “We need that thickness to form a stable pack, but also to ensure that our gas values remain intact. By applying a common mixture of CO² / N², we can guarantee a shelf life of 14 days.” With a 500 μm bottom film, the packaging machine had to prove excellent quality in forming. Van Roey: “During the various tests in Emmen, it was clear that the SEALPAC thermoformer was able to consistently form stable packs. Simply by adding or removing the filling plates in the forming station, we can now easily switch from 400g to 1kg packs.”
Every shrimp is unique
These days, Van Roey is running the line 4 to 5 days a week, around 7 hours each day. Next to large prawns, mainly coming from South America, the company also processes smaller grey shrimp from the North Sea and pink brine shrimp. The picture of the shrimp in Van Roey’s company logo never changed, but around five years ago the company added its pay-off ‘Every shrimp is unique’. As Van Roey concludes: “It is our personal care for shrimp, most likely still stemming from the original seafood market stall of my parents, that makes this company’s approach unique.”
