GEA PowerPak PLUS boosts bakery business
Butt Foods chose the new GEA PowerPak PLUS thermoformer for wrapping naan breads at its Nottingham facility and is thrilled with its significant investment in packaging machinery which is helping to boost productivity and increase efficiency. The award-winning bakery is delighted that having this innovative technology is proving a major advantage for the company as it seeks new markets for its range of hand-finished frozen sweet and savory products.
Customer profile
Butt Foods is passionate about developing high quality, innovative products that meet specific market needs, and has its corporate finger constantly on the pulse of trends in foodservice and bakery. The family-owned bakery business in Nottingham makes hand-finished frozen sweet and savory products. With their scale and team attitude, Butt Foods is flexible enough to manage bespoke short runs of 8 pallets but still produce at a very consistent high quality.
"We share passion for bakery excellence, so it makes sense to enhance our production with only the best packaging solutions."
The challenge
Offering faster access to market and longer shelf life, whilst significantly reducing the impact of film waste by up to 75% in the packaging process, the PowerPak PLUS’s innovative design shortens set-up and changeover times. In addition, it can be operated in tandem with Oxycheck, the non-invasive in-line quality control system for Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP).
Danesh Butt, Managing Director of Butt Foods, admits he was not only sold on GEA’s innovative and flexible thermoforming technology but was also impressed by our knowledge of the bakery market and the level of local customer support on offer. He said: “The equipment was a significant milestone for Butt Foods as we are an SME and this was our most important purchase to date. GEA made several site visits before successful installation of the line, and all trials have been perfect! The system is performing to every expectation and the GEA team has demonstrated nothing but professionalism, support and commitment since we first connected.”
"GEA team has demonstrated nothing but professionalism, support and commitment since we first connected."
The right performance
We are gratified that Butts Food sees GEA being part of its long-term plans for a prosperous future in the bakery sector. Danesh commented: “We work with some of the finest development specialists, to explore flavors, textures and processes that we can bring to market. Our passion for bakery excellence ensures that only the best products make it through our rigorous processes, so it makes sense to enhance our production capabilities with only the best packaging solutions. “I look forward to building a long-term strategic partnership with GEA, and hopefully this is the first of many GEA packaging lines at Butt Foods.”
PowerPak PLUS has been designed to bring real economic benefits for the food industry through shorter downtime, minimum film waste and the elimination of packaging errors. User-friendly, flexible and robust, our next generation thermoforming packaging machine can comfortably handle different printed films and a variety of packing weights and product sizes, making the equipment suitable for a huge range of bakery products.
UK Product Manager Thermoforming, Greg Austin concluded: “Butt Foods is a new customer and we’re delighted to have found the company an ideal thermoforming solution. They were originally focused on frozen flow wrapped products, so choosing our equipment means they can expand their ranges into new, profitable areas as well as offering their customers longer shelf life and increased speed to market.”
