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Europe’s Lasagne Leader integrates Ishida into its growth plans

21/01/2001

Vamos, founded in 1985, is situated in Wanze, near Liege, in Belgium. Since 1996, the company forms part of Ter Beke, an important food manufacturing group, whose activities are equally split between the delicatessen trade and ready meals.

Vamos has two production units on site, employing 160 people. One of these units makes individual ready meals based on five different lasagne recipes. These are sold through large distributors under the brand names Pronto and Come a Casa, or under the customer’s own brand. The other unit makes large (up to 6 kg) trays of lasagne, in a choice of seven different recipes, for distribution to caterers and butchers through a wholesale network.

The catering pack production used to be predominant, but today is widely surpassed by the individual ready meals production, which is constantly expanding. Today, the latter represent over 70% of the company’s production.

An innovative and dynamic company.

Vamos is a particularly dynamic company. As the European leader in ready-to-eat lasagne, its international expansion is impressive. Its main markets, apart from Belgium, are Switzerland, Holland, France, Ireland and Spain. Vamos has its sales teams in several countries on the lookout for information on local consumers’ tastes, in order to adapt its range of recipes.

The company is also an innovator, for example it uses C-PET trays, a plastic suitable for traditional ovens or for microwaving. This material is a low-cost solution since it avoids the double packaging of aluminium foil wrapped in plastic film, which is conventionally used in the industry. The Guinness World Book of Records reveals Vamos to be the creator of biggest lasagne ever made, weighing 4.333 tonnes.

Ishida – an obvious choice for Vamos

To facilitate its annual production of 12 000 tonnes of lasagne ready meals, Vamos invested 200 million Belgian Francs (around £3 million) in a new automated packaging line.

At the heart of the line is an Ishida CCW-DZ-216B-D/15-WP multihead weigher, over an Ishida Integrated Topping System (ITS). Its function is to drop the same precise quantity of grated cheese onto all the lasagne trays that pass beneath it.

“ We chose this weighing equipment because of Ishida’s unequalled international distinction in this field”, says Christophe Simon, Vamos Plant Manager. “ Ishida was clearly in the best position to meet our specific needs. During commissioning, which demanded time-consuming adjustments, Ishida and BRN, their local agent, were excellent partners, who left nothing to chance.

Accuracy at high speed

Before the installation of the new line, the company used the conventional method of driving the portioned lasagne under a continuous curtain of cheese topping. This system lacked accuracy, leading to significant product wastage, and to high maintenance costs.

With the Ishida multihead weigher and its ITS, the quantity of product wasted is extremely low, at less than 0.25%. As for the speed, the system is turning out over 8 400g of lasagne per hour.

Trouble-free operation

This weighing equipment runs an average of 16 hours a day, five days a week. “It’s a remarkably reliable system, running totally maintenance-free”, says Mr. Simon. ”We have had it in service for a year and a half now and have only stopped it once, when we had to replace an electronic module which became corroded because we hadn’t protected the cells well enough during cleaning. Even then, it only stopped the production line for under two hours.” Mr. Simon adds: “As for maintenance, I don’t really need a contract for this. The weighing equipment and the local Ishida people are so reliable that a simple repair agreement is enough."

Simple, easy cleaning

Vamos continuously monitors the entire production process to avoid any bacterial contamination. The products themselves are regularly monitored by two laboratories, one in-house, and the other external.

To maintain the levels of hygiene required, it is vital to have weighing equipment which is easy-to-clean. The hex embossed contact surfaces of the Ishida weighing machine reduce adhesion by food particles, and all the contact parts are easy to remove and replace.

This feature is of great importance because Vamos uses a vegetarian cheese for one of its recipes, a Quorn lasagne, based on myco-proteins. This must remain totally free from cross-contamination with non-vegetarian materials.

Better training means more profitable operation

"We have many different products, each requiring specific settings for numerous packaging equipment parameters. The Ishida weighing system uses ’presets’, so that changes from one product to another can be made at the touch of a button. However, Ishida devoted considerable time at the beginning to getting each preset right and to training our people to use the weighing equipment. As a result, they are always able to get the maximum speed and efficiency out of it, despite the fact that the cheese we use can be very sticky", explains Mr. Simon.

In a highly competitive market, efficiency and profit are issues Vamos must take very seriously in order to maintain its status as a leader. Its new Ishida weighing equipment, with its payback period of under two years, is a major help in achieving its goals.