The company’s customers in Brazil include JBS, Cargill and Nestlé, to hygiene product applications such as Kimberly Clark and Procter & Gamble.
Growth in sales & production of 40% per year
Pierre DiGirolamo, executive director of Brazil Operations, Fortress Technology, is based out of the firm’s Toronto head office and has been running operations in Brazil since 2007, seeing a record growth in sales and production of 40% per year.
“We have been established for 10 years in Sao Paulo Brazil. We strongly believe Brazil is a powerhouse when it comes to food production and we are ready to supply equipment and services to this rapidly growing industry,” he told FoodProductionDaily.
“The expansion means rapid growth and multiple projects being quoted. We will need to review our strategy and adapt to this new market to be able to sustain the demand. This means in the short term we will be hiring and training more staff to meet the demand.”
DiGirolamo said the main challenge within the industry is education about metal detection.
Training campaign through Food safety blogs
“Our biggest challenge is trying to explain the technology to people that decide on the detection they require,” he added.
“Many customers set detection specs but do understand the implications of how to achieve the detection. Our answer to this is providing a training campaign through Food safety blogs, sites, and conferences where our customers will be invited to learn how to choose a detection spec according to their products.”
He said in the next 10 years, Fortress predicts stricter norms for metal detection and technology will be the limiting factor.
“We regularly evaluate ourselves and try to improve delivery times. We have customers placing orders that are rushed but our product is custom made and needs time to produce them.
“Our philosophy at Fortress is to provide a custom system to maximise the detection of contaminants. We prefer not to sell a stock item.
“We have managed to fine tune our production and provide a quick production turnover. We do keep common sizes in stock which can be loaned or rented while customers’ units are being produced.”