At the forefront Pavan

AT THE FOREFRONT

Italy-based Pavan, one of the worldwide industry pioneers in the design and engineering of technologies and integrated product lines for cereal-based foods, continues to grow its business as a member of the German GEA Group. Romana Moares reports.

With over 70 years of experience, a wide-ranging portfolio covering several different specialised brands, as well as continuing investment in its R&D capability, Pavan provides highly sophisticated processes and automation solutions, both for single technologies and for a multidisciplinary turnkey approach.

Pavan’s portfolio includes the widest possible range of solutions for the production of all types of dry and fresh pasta, as well as for snack pellets and breakfast cereals. The company can also provide dies, cutting systems, die washing equipment, and packaging lines for pasta, baked food goods and snacks. Furthermore, with its Golfetto Sangati equipment range, Pavan offers complete turnkey cereal milling plants.

In 2017, Pavan was acquired by the Dusseldorf engineering group GEA, a significant milestone that has further accelerated its growth and global reach. Group synergies

GEA’s acquisition marked a new stage for Pavan, which can rely on the support of a major brand with solid industrial and financial capacity and with the ability to enhance and promote the development of innovative technologies and commercial synergy.

To GEA this acquisition was a milestone for the growth and development strategy for its activities in the food industry. Pavan’s know-how in extrusion technologies, its wide range of industrial solutions, and its presence in key international markets all offered enhanced growth.

The acquisition of Pavan has helped GEA to extend its presence in pasta production, as well as include ground-breaking technologies, such as the vacuum technology – developed and perfected to create current solutions; and the Thermo Active System (TAS) that has revolutionised the way pasta is dried, yielding higher-quality pasta in a shorter time.

Using these technologies, it is possible to make outstanding end products even from flours with low protein content, as high temperatures facilitate coagulation and improve the quality of the pasta.

The long experience in pasta manufacturing acquired by Pavan allows the Group to be one of the leading suppliers of fresh pasta production equipment, providing machines for fresh pasta, frozen foods, and ready meals, covering the entire process from dough mixing to sheet preparation.

Optimised operation

With more than 18,000 employees, the GEA Group generated revenue of more than €4.6 billion in 2020. A major focus is on continuously enhancing the sustainability and efficiency of customers’ production processes, while sustaining profitable performance.

To this end, the Group has decided on a series of measures to further optimise its operations: a new organisational structure, restructuring measures, and new membership of the Executive Board.

As part of the operations strategy, production is now due to become more international, in order to increase customer proximity and leverage cost advantages. Additionally, there are plans to concentrate products and processes with synergy potential at certain locations and to increase capacity utilisation.

The aim is also to expand standardised production based on modular systems and to optimise the depth of value creation, partly through the reintegration of tasks that had previously been outsourced.

The factory of the future

The first major investment within this production strategy is the expansion of the Group’s site in Koszalin located just south of the Baltic Sea coast in north-west Poland. The site will be expanded into a centre of competence for pump production and comprehensive machining, designed to be a climate-neutral production facility.

The cornerstone was laid in May 2021 and the facility is set to be operational in 2022. “The Koszalin expansion is more than just

a build; it is an opportunity to create a competitive, climate-neutral production centre in Europe based on GEA’s needs and industry best-practice – a Factory of the Future,” explained Johannes Giloth, GEA’s Chief Operating Officer.

The €37 million investment will enhance the facility’s role in the production of hygienic and vacuum pumps and components. From here, finished pumps can be shipped to end customers globally, for use in the pharmaceutical, chemical, home and personal care, beverage, dairy and food processing industries.

“By expanding our Koszalin site, we are further strengthening GEA’s global manufacturing network by increasing productivity, reducing our cost base and shortening lead times for customers. We anticipate a payback period of less than five and a half years, which is quite impressive by any industry standard,” said Holger Gluess, Head of Global Production, GEA.

Further investment and consolidation of production and process activities are planned at other locations. The aim is to further strengthen GEA’s global position while consolidating capacity to improve efficiency and a cost-effective operation. n