A new start at Aston Foods International

Aston Foods International has had quite an eventful history up to now. The Swiss supplier of vacuum systems plans a new beginning under Jörg Trübl, Managing Director since July 2017.

+“We want to become the leading premium supplier.”

Jörg Trübl has put this aim on the agenda, no more and no less. After studying Engineering Sciences at the Boku (University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences) in Vienna and at Bristol University, the Austrian engineer worked in various industrial companies, then took over the management at Steinhausen in July this year.

He aims to offer complex applications technology for European producers of high-quality baked goods. Trübl says: “Our plants are over-engineered for fruit or flowers. They have high-caliber regulation and control technology manufactured by our own company.” Aston Foods International currently employs a total of 15 staff, of which four are after-sales technicians and two are bakery technicians to give on-site advice to clients. The technology partner for vacuum cell construction and conveyor engineering is Stoppani AG, which like Aston Foods International belongs to the Swiss industrialist Karl Nicklaus. The pumps are from Busch AG in Magden in the Swiss canton of Aargau, and are so-called screw vacuum pumps that work without any oil or other operating materials in the compression chamber and achieve a performance of 1,000 m 3/hour. By now there are 45 batch plant installations in Switzerland (e.g. Bachmann in Lucerne, Fleur de Pain in Crissier and Steiner in Wetzikon), in Germany (e.g. Heitzmann in Bad Krotzingen and Baier in Herrenberg) and in Austria (e.g. Richter in Lower Austria and Sieberer in Salzburg), as well as other plants in Panama, Columbia, Japan and Turkey. Their uses in Spain include stabilizing gluten-free baked products.

The second planned mainstay is continuously vacuum-cooling white bread and toast-bread.

“The target region: along the tropics and sub-tropics.” (Trübl). The first of the toast-bread stabilization plants have already been delivered to Saudi-Arabia and Turkey.

To come closer to his aim of market leadership, Trübl relies on cooperation with the scientific world. A Swiss government sponsored KTI (Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation) research studying innovative process management to stabilize baked products is currently underway at the ZHAW (Zurich University of Applied Sciences), Wädenswil, the focus being on water content, shelf life, sliceability and plant energy consumption. The project is scheduled to last a total of three years. According to Trübl, Aston also cooperates with Wels Polytechnic and the applications technology division of the baking agent manufacturer CSM, where product and process development work is ongoing.

Miwe presented a plant for in-store stabilization of freshlybaked products on its stand at last year’s Euroshop trade fair. According to Trübl, the equipment was a joint idea of

Miwe and Aston Foods International, which the latter is now developing further as its own product in the shape of a compact cell (i.e. without an oven). The intention is to market it under the “Aeolos” name. Trübl says the machine enables the same results as a large chamber, and is also fitted with Busch vacuum pumps.

The financial disputes in which in Aston Foods International was embroiled through its proprietor Karl Nicklaus have not yet been fully overcome, but Trübl says they will have no further effects on the business. Trübl says: “Mr. Nicklaus has assured me that he will support Aston Foods International.”