In its production facility in kungshamn Sweden, Leroy developed a unique sliced salmon pack that is produced on a fully automatic line with a sealpac re25 thermoformed at its centerpiece. We spoke with Matthias gunnarsson, commercial manager and vice president at Leroy smidgen seafood abs, about the importance of continuous product development and packaging innovation. Leading the salmon market beautifully situated on the rocky coast of Sweden, close to the picturesque island of smidgen, Leroy smidgen seafood abs overlooks the sea that hosts the product it packs salmon.
The company is part of the Leroy group www.leroy.no, the second largest salmon producer in the world, which has a strong history in sales and distribution. It was only about 15 years ago that the Leroy group also took up fish farming. When the risk of a salmon shortage started to occur in the nineties, due to the rising demand for this healthy product, Leroy decided to integrate fish farming into its core business. It now produces 150,000 tons of salmon per year in the seas around Norway. A large share of this production is delivered to Leroy smidgen for further processing. The importance of continuous product development Matthias gunnarsson, commercial manager and vice president at Leroy smögen seafood abs, worked as an external consultant when the construction of the production facility in kungshamn started in 2004. By the time it was finished in 2007, he was asked to join the company where he was employed as operations manager, later to become production manager. Currently, he is responsible within Leroy smidgen for purchasing, product development and sales.
As gunnarsson explains &lsquowith our strong history in sales and distribution, Leroy stands out in offering value added products. As such, two employees at leröy smidgen are fully dedicated to product development and packaging innovation. And it pays off about 50 of our current turnover comes from products that we developed in the past 3 to 4 years&rsquo a unique idea an idea that had existed within Leroy smögen for quite some time was to introduce smoked salmon slices to be used on sandwiches as an alternative to sliced meat. But how to slice the salmon gunnarsson &lsquowe had to come up with a process where we could produce smoked salmon in a solid shape, which could then be sliced at a certain temperature. Also, due to our clean list of ingredients, we could not work with food additives. It took us around 1½ years to develop the right process, which we obviously keep to ourselves, but now we are able to produce perfectly sliced salmon in three different flavors natural, pepper and Provence. It starts with the pack in January 2011; Leroy smidgen bought a sealpac re25 thermoformed to pack its innovative sliced salmon product. Gunnar son &liquors always, it started with the pack.
For us it was clear that it had to be a thermoformed solution, as this is the common packaging system for sliced meat. Furthermore, it is a cost-efficient solution. We started testing packaging materials and approaching potential suppliers for the line. One of them was jess tennis www.jsteknik.se, exclusive distributor for sealpac thermo formers in Sweden, with whom we have had an excellent cooperation since the start of the factory in 2007.&rdquo based on leröy&rsquos experience in thermoforming, a list of demands was set up. High on this list was the capacity of the line, which is not only determined by the speed of the machine in cycles per minute, but also by how many packs fit in the tooling. Furthermore, due to limited space in the production area, the length of the machine was an important issue.
Gunnar son &lsquoin the end, jess tennis came up with an extremely efficient configuration of the sealpac machine, which achieves high outputs and even allows us to add robot loading in the future. By applying two film unwinders, quick exchange of the top film was optimized. After visiting the sealpac factory in July 2010, where we were able to make sample packs, it was clear that we would move forward with them.&rsquo the current line starts with a Thorne slicer. From there the slices are transported to the loading area of the sealpac thermoformed. After loading, the packs are sealed with a printed top film under map, to move on to the crosscutting and longitudinal cutting stations, after which they are discharged at 9 packs per cycle. By adding robot loading, this line will be able to run at 10 cycles per minute.
Packaging innovation Leroy is the first company in Scandinavia to equip its packs with the so-called easypeelpoint system, which was developed by sealpac in 2010. This revolutionary easy opening method allows for effortless opening of packs by consumers, which Leroy identified as a significant demand. Due to the easypeelpoint system the peel corner is integrated within the sealing contours of the pack. The corner of the top film is pressed into a round cavity and releases from the sealing edge. With the resulting easytogrip peel tab, the top film is removed from the pack with minimum force. Another important feature of the pack is the hanger hole, which allows for vertical presentation at retail. By applying a modified atmosphere in the pack in the sealing process the air inside the pack is replaced by a gas mixture of co 2 and n 2, each slice can easily be removed from the pack, particularly when compared with the common vacuum packs. Senlac & request reliable sealing process, which achieves less than 0.5 residual oxygen levels in each pack, plays an important part in achieving the maximum shelf life of 21 days.
Award winning concept during the European seafood exposition 2012, hosted annually in Brussels Belgium for experts throughout the seafood industry, Leroy won a prix d&rsquoelite award for its påleggslaks Provence in the convenience category. Special mention was given to the perfect size of the salmon slices and the extremely consumer friendly packaging. Conquering new markets gunnarsson &lsquothanks to sealpac we were able to make packaging samples for consumer testing. Next to the easy opening functionality, these tests were also done to get feedback on the entire concept of smoked salmon slices, as well as on the actual taste of the product. &rsquo the sliced salmon packs were first introduced in Norway in September 2011, and are currently distributed through all major Norwegian retail chains ice, coop, norgesgruppen and ream 1000. In February 2012, Leroy launched the product in Sweden, where it is now part of the optional listing at retailers such as ax food, ice and coop. Later this year, Leroy will introduce its innovative product to the finish market. Gunnar son concludes &lsquolooking at the smoked category, we see a clear trend from vacuum packaging to map, as it allows consumers to take the product out of the pack more easily. In addition, consumers are constantly looking for convenience. We therefore expect to extend our product portfolio with sealpac & request easy peel point system in the near future. & risqué since the start of the company in 1961, Leroy smidgen has seen its number of employees grow to the current 130. But is does not stop there. As we speak, the company is doubling its production capacity in kungshamn to around 12,000 tons. With the rocky coast in mind, dynamite is required to make this happen &dash a symbol of Leroy smögen & rsquos ability to shake up the market with new innovations.
