The other kind of consultancy company

“Integrated Bakery” develops, designs and deliver bakery solutions and is therefore quite different compared to other consultants. The Dutch company acts as a system integrator and is turnkey supplier of technical solutions with performance warranties.

+A new build, modern or automated bakery production unit – it’s all “daily bread” for Frans van der Schoot and his team. From their location in Hedel, they travel around the world to advise clients. They undertake planning and implementation on their own responsibility as a contractor. They act as project manager and one-stop-shop supplier for the client with all the obligations. Equally they also support the client to choose for the right equipment suppliers if the customer decides to do so. Integrated Bakery guarantees the lines’ functioning, performance and time-schedule. Their geographic focus is on Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, which is looked after by an office in Dubai, Africa and India. For two years, together with other Dutch companies, Integrated Bakery has also been part of a consortium that takes care of the Chinese market. Their clients are medium-sized companies who prefer to have a single contact and contract partner instead of a dozen of (individual) suppliers for their investment projects – it’s one-stop shopping for investors.

The company was founded by Frans van der Schoot, who now has at his disposal a core team of 15 staff together with contracted specialists or freelance employees, depending on the project. A Dutch citizen originally from a family of bakers, he studied Mechanical Engineering and then joined what was at that time one of the biggest bakery groups in the Netherlands, operating around 40 industrial bakeries, as a planning and bakery construction engineer. After that the company was sold, he started his own business 25 years ago as a consultant for bakery design concepts and equipment, from feasibility study to turnkey handover with a warranty certificate. Three examples will illustrate the width of Integrated Bakery’s work area: the integration of a second-hand tin bread line at Vermaut's Boerenbrood in Belgium, and building a new state-of-the-art production factory for the European production facility in Andover, UK of Rich Products Ltd, in which Integrated Bakeries molded 19 different suppliers into a single unit. Example Nr. 3 originates from the Far East, where the Dutch consultants helped a company to turn a large but rather artisan production structure into an efficient industrial, but nonetheless flexible, manufacturer of baked products.

Example 1: A second-hand tinned bread line from Spain to Belgium

Vermaut’s Boerenbrood (part of Diversi Foods) is an industrial bakery situated in Lendelede, Belgium, that delivers fresh bread and pre-baked frozen (bake-off) bread to various channels every day. The company has focused on traditionally stone-baked bread for several generations. Square bread, pistolets (small French rolls), patisserie and viennoiserie (puff pastry) are also part of their range, together with round bread.

“Last year there was an urgent need to expand capacity to produce of tinned bread. A requirement for the capacity expansion was a short payback time on the investment. After comparison between a completely new line and a used line, it turned out that the solution for our business case was a used line, which Dubet, the sister company of Integrated Bakery found in Spain. The line proved to be a very attractive option and included a number of extra components that had added value for the bakery. For example, it included an infrared oven in which crustless bread could be produced. The turnkey-project which Vermaut's signed with Integrated Bakery and Dubet involved disassembly, transport, overhaul, engineering, project management, reinstallation and commissioning.

Frans van der Schoot: We began with adjustments on the layout (the plant had to fit in an existing building), and disassembly started at the same time. After dismantling in Spain and transport to Belgium, the line was gradually overhauled in Belgium and installed under our supervision.

Based on the new layout, it was necessary to make various technical configuration changes (engineering). In addition, the building needed various modifications in order to continue to meet safety requirements (CE Standard) with the new layout. After installation, the assignment was to put the line into use together. To make commissioning a success, we went through four phases, dry testing, testing with dough, first production run, and the last phase: handover to the customer.”

Example 2: Building a new, state-of-the-art production factory

Rich Products Corporation (Rich’s) is one the world’s largest family businesses in the food industry, and is a leading supplier of a very wide range of bakery products, such as dairy-free toppings, cakes, desserts, pizzas, rolls, muffins, cookies etc. etc. Rich’s is also the founder of the non-dairy segment of the frozen-food industry and currently has 50 production locations in 6 continents, whose products are sold in more than 100 countries.

Their UK division, Rich’s Products Ltd. wants to realize a new European production facility in Andover, United Kingdom. This new bakery facility needs to be an example of the bakery of the future; with growth capabilities and equipped with the latest technologies and automation. The project contains several production lines, into which different equipment and technologies need to be integrated, from ingredient supply to palletization.

Integrated Bakery is contracted by Rich’s to develop and realize this facility, and supplies integral advice, bakery engineering and project management services with regard to both the technical solution, supporting technical installations and the building’s architectural design.

The first bakery production line was operational mid-January 2019 and the entire plant will be in operation by mid-2019. The total integrated solution includes equipment from 18 different suppliers. Each of them contributes from their specialization to obtain an optimally designed production plant with features like: small footprint, laborfriendly, low energy consumption, automated flexible production, scalable (capacity), upgradable (level of automation) etc. Such an approach assures a highly flexible asset with a long lifetime, capable of meeting the needs of the future production of (new) bakery products.

Example 3: Performance improvement

Early in 2016, Integrated Bakery was approached by a bakery in the Far East market that needed performance improvement at one of its bakeries producing a wide range of baked products that were delivered fresh on a daily basis.

MIXING SOLUTIONS for bread, pastries, cakes and snacking industries

Versatility Reliability Quality

VMI

The customer was operating on a large scale but still at an artisan level. During a site visit, the customer’s real need became very obvious: more output from a bakery that was already fully loaded with bakery equipment and extremely (over)crowded with production staff.

A highly flexible production system was the exact need. But how to free up space in such a productive environment with without jeopardizing the daily production. We managed to convince the client to let go one of his tunnel ovens, thus freeing up the needed space for a new system. During the Conceptual Design phase, various known technical solutions were projected in the limited space still available. Needless to say that the traditional linear production system, which is a space-consuming solution, was out of the question because it would not fit given the tight circumstances and would also not be able to cope with the wide variety of products at a very small batch size per product.

Evaluating systems like a tunnel/rack system or the innovative BOX system, which is a flexible solution built around thermooil heated stationary rack ovens, the decision was made for a robot loaded Multideck system, a solution that was developed and built in a Dutch bakery about 10 years ago. Frans van der Schoot says: “Given the fact that Integrated Bakery is not an equipment manufacturer, thus giving us the position to think in solutions rather than trying to sell what we produce. We were able to check the various potential solutions available in the market and even customize towards the customer’s need, and finally find a feasible solution that was able to cope with the very challenging situation in the bakery. We were able to offer the customer the ability to produce a very wide variety of products at a high quality level within very limited space with a small number of production staff needed."

The capabilities of Integrated Bakery to source, create and contract tailored solutions makes them an unique player in the global bakeries market. They are flexible to merge different industrial machines with local market needs making them a perfect partner to move from artisan production to semi-industrial and automated industrial production while maintaining local flavors and tastes. +++

++ Performance improvement:

Evaluating systems like a tunnel/rack system or the innovative BOX system, which is a flexible solution built around thermo-oil heated stationary rack ovens, the decision was made for a robot loaded Multideck system dough preparation dough dividing dough moulding proofing frying baking pasteurizing cooling deep-freezing product handling