Its first event is the Salmon ShowHow on February 5, 2014, where food processors can discuss trends in the industry, and see the latest salmon processing equipment, followed by the Meat ShowHow on April 2, 2014.
Elisabet Austmann, development manager, Progress Point, told FoodProductionDaily the Salmon ShowHow is the first tradeshow at Progress Point, but prior to that it will have smaller customer events where various machines and products will be demonstrated.
More face time with customers
“The majority of our customers come from Northern Europe, but we want to attract people from overseas,” she said.
“Marel participates in about 40 tradeshows a year where products are showcased and are at the same time exposed to competitors. At Progress Point this will not be the case and we will have more face time with customers.
“We will use the facility to increase sales, improve internal training and invite potential customers such as manufacturers, decision makers, plant managers and quality control personnel to visit Marel in a central accessible location.”
Strategic location
The 2,700m2 space, next to Copenhagen’s Kastrup Airport, took 11 months to build and includes demonstration halls, meeting rooms, an auditorium, kitchen and dining area.
It was designed by architects Peter Bysted & Philip S. Egebak, ICONO design consultancy and contractor CASA.
The building will showcase products, such as weighing and grading equipment and portioning machines, stage events, meetings, and run training workshops for brands including Stork Poultry Processing and Townsend Further Processing.
The demonstration facilities will simulate real food processing plant conditions, with a 900m2 space dedicated to wet and cooling areas.
Its other demonstration facilities are Boxmeer, in The Netherlands, Des Moines, Iowa, US and Lennexa, Kansas US.