Speaking to BakeryandSnacks at ISM & ProSweets 2016, in Colgone, Germany, this week, Mark Lozano, sales manager, tna, North America, said the company is in ‘growth mode’ following its latest acquisitions of Florigo and Unique Solutions last year and more are on the way.
Rduce oil uptake & cooking times
“There will be more expansion at tna - we are in growth mode. These are exiting times,” said Lozano.
“Controlled portion packaging is continuously growing and will drive machine speeds to ever increasing heights requiring us to maintain our R&D and development functions on a fast and confident footing.
“On the process side, ‘good for you’ is the challenge from the market place.
“With Florigo and a few partner companies, we offer the means to provide both a unique product from our customer to theirs, such as root vegetable and fruit crisps to the modification of traditional potato products.
"We can adapt the base product and reduce the oil uptake and cooking times making them less expensive to produce and more in line with what the end customer is looking for from a health point of view.”
tna works with customers including General Mills, ConAgra, Snyders-Lance, Shearer’s, and Jelly Belly
According to Lozano, it plans to provide more complete systems, further integrating what in most instances are single components from most suppliers, to turn-key offerings and more complete services.
'The bagger is the backbone of a combination of items'
As an example, our VFFS systems are already the most completely integrated systems available, he said.
“The bagger is the backbone of a combination of items from the scale, integration unit, the code dater, metal detection, verification systems from code verification through product in seal detection, and UPC readers to verify the correct film is being utilised for the package produced.
“With Unique Solutions, we can now provide insertion and labelling as part of the whole, both of which will be integrated into the systems, mechanically and software wise.
“The products will undergo development as part of the tna range and as they do they will become more integral to the whole system and more capable and, as a matter of course, more valuable.
“The food industry will continue to grow over the coming years creating exciting opportunities – this means we’ll need to continue to develop innovative technology that delivers the speed and flexibility our customers need to serve these emerging markets.
Next level breakthrough engineering
“This will undoubtedly involve new product launches as we look to take our commitment to performance, flexibility and simplicity to the next level with breakthrough engineering. This will allow us to extend our local support network to an even greater number of customers in the future.”
Florigo specialises in the design and manufacture of frying technology for snack and french fry processing lines. It expands the processing portion of tna’s business and expands its cooking, frying and refrigeration capabilities.
Unique Solutions will offer insertion and labelling as an integral part of the tna Vertical Form Fill and Seal systems and grow tna’s exposure to those markets.
“As we grow and the product range expands, new people join the company and training and maintaining the unique tna culture gets even more important,” added Lozano.
“Customers are continually driven to do more with less; For example, they are driven to maintain pricing while increasing services and offerings to their customers. We have to step up the services side of our business to pick up and carry those tasks that were once done in-house by our customers.”