The trend towards bigger capacities

The machines produced by the Tromp Group in the Netherlands, part of the Markel Food Group, include pizza plants for the whole world. Sales Director Henk Hoppenbrouwers is regarded as an industry insider. In this interview, the expert explains how the pizza market is developing.

Borchfeld: M r. Hoppenbrouwers, what trends do you see in the pizza market?

+ Hoppenbrouwers: Each country and every region has its own preferences. Tastes differ greatly. We in the Netherlands like a rather sweet pizza with pineapple or vegetables. The Chinese, on the other hand, prefer pizza with lots of cheese, some sauce and a lot of poultry meat. As I said, every country has its own individual flavor preferences.

+ Borchfeld: You just mentioned China. Is it a market for pizza?

+ Hoppenbrouwers: Asia’s pizza market is still small, but it is growing, and we have already sold plants into the region. There is a difference in the product range we offer there, however, because many Asian households have no oven at all, so the consumer has no possible way of baking his pizza at home either. Pizzas are therefore 100% fully baked, then offered for sale either frozen or chilled. Customers can then reheat the pizzas, e.g. in a microwave.

+ Borchfeld: It seems to be a really specialized market.

+ Hoppenbrouwers: That’s true, and the market is changing rapidly. But in the Tromp Group we support our customers to enable them to respond to market changes. We provide specialist knowledge not only on the spot but also in our Technology Centre here in the Netherlands. Together with customers, we develop baked products to suit the home market. We also help our customers with product adaptation and development.

+ Borchfeld: So are there any general trends in the pizza market?

+ Hoppenbrouwers: To begin with, Europe’s frozen pizza market has an annual growth rate of 8 to 10%. I observe a trend towards smaller pizzas and pizza snacks at the same time. There is a growing market in North America for fresh and chilled pizzas, for example those sold in supermarkets. We have also installed a plant to manufacture gluten-free pizza. Here again we observe a trend. On the other hand, a different shape is something that doesn’t seem to go down too well with consumers. Rectangular pizzas, for example, are not very popular with customers. 90% of consumers think of a pizza as having a round shape. A general trend is the “De-Luxe Pizza”, richly topped with various kinds of cheese and meat.

+ Borchfeld: What do pizza producers want from the mechanical engineers?

+ Hoppenbrouwers: Pizza manufacturing plants are becoming bigger and wider, and thus more efficient. For example, we have installed output capacities of up to 12,000 pizzas/hour. What I observe is an annual increase in hourly output capacity. The majority of customers also want complete turnkey plants with good control and monitoring. These plants should allow a quick product change and should also be easy to clean. That’s why we offer the corresponding interchangeable modules, e.g. strewers, that can be wet-cleaned. Robots can also be used, e.g. to distribute tomato sauce onto pizza crusts with pin-point accuracy. Customers also want to be able to produce a variety of baked goods on a single line, to avoid plant downtimes and to make them more flexible. There is a general increase in what clients require from mechanical engineers.

+ Borchfeld: The Tromp Group manufactures a wide variety of plants e.g. laminating lines, pie and cake lines as well as wafer plants. How important to you are pizza production lines?

+ Hoppenbrouwers: Pizza lines are clearly part of Tromp Group's growth strategy. Tromp Group earns around 30% of its revenues from pizza production plants, and demand is high. We also profit through synergies within the Group. For example, we can offer continuous mixers from our sister company Reading Bakery Systems in the USA. There is also a transfer of know-how. From our pie-making plants we know about the pressing process to manufacture pizza crusts. At the same time, however, we can also offer our customers a process to punch pizza crusts from a dough sheet.

+ Borchfeld: In terms of the end product, do the various processes yield different pizzas?

+ Hoppenbrouwers: I think it’s a question of manufacturing philosophy. What we observe is that the press process is more likely to be used by premium suppliers, since pressing dough to form a pizza crust takes time because the dough ball needs

++ Pizza lines are part of Tromp Group's growth strategy to be pressed at least twice to achieve the required shape and stability. On the other hand, punching the pizza crust from a dough sheet is quicker. Only a single operation is needed. However, it creates a corresponding amount of scrap dough that has to be recycled back into the process. I don’t imagine that the end customer will be able to detect any big difference in the finished product. Perhaps in the bite. As I said, we offer our customers both processes.

+ Borchfeld: One more quick look at the iba. What can visitors to the trade fair expect?

+ Hoppenbrouwers: In Munich we will present, among other things, innovations in the pizza and healthy snacks segments.

+ Borchfeld: Mr. Hoppenbrouwers, many thanks for the interview. +++

++ UK: Ocado – A pioneer for artisan bread varieties as well

Handmade amaranth bread, 100% ryebread with honey, bread made with Spirulina (blue algae) and pumpkin seeds, and two types of gluten-free bread – the British online giant Ocado recently also introduced bread from the Gradz Bakery, a bakery founded in London in 2015 and specializing in sourdough breads according to old recipes. Products made by Gails Bakery, a mix of a delivery and branch bakery famous for its artisan breads, have been available for some years, as have the organic breads made by Celtic Bakers. Ocado’s range of bread and baked goods lists an impressive total of 821 products, from bread, brioche and croissants to donuts and cakes. Ocado’s retail sales in 2017 were GBP 1,317m., and thus 12.4% above the previous year. Ocado earned another GBP 116m. through system solutions for other retailers. 263,000 orders/week were delivered in 2017, with a growing customer network densification, more Sunday deliveries and more highly perfected order-handling technology. +++

++ Japan: Joy and sorrow at Yamazaki Baking Co.

The Japanese food and bakery group Yamazaki Baking Co. increased its revenues by 1.1% last year to JPY 1.05 trillion, equivalent to USD 9.96bn. On the other hand, there is less satisfaction with the trend in operative profit, which fell 14% to JPY 30.087bn., equivalent to USD 292.9m. Obviously the reason for this was a weak trend in retail profits. Yamazaki is a diversified conglomerate that not only manufactures bread, noodles and rice-based dishes, but also operates its own convenience stores, often with their own baking station. The Group’s revenues purely from bread rose by 2.5% in 2017 to the equivalent of JPY 96.493bn., equivalent to USD 915m.

Financial Results and Key Indicator

Growing demand by Japanese consumers for premium products and small packs, e.g. containing only three slices of bread, is regarded as the reason for this pleasing development. On the other hand, sweet buns, i.e. sweet bread rolls, which are Yamazaki’s main product, achieved revenues of JPY 359.571bn. in 2017, equivalent to USD 3.41bn., corresponding to a rise of “only” 0.9%. Market researchers attribute a 23% share of the Japanese baked products market to Yamazaki. +++

++ Netherlands: Emté gets new owners

Distribution of net revenues by segments 2017

As reported in the Netherlands newspaper De Tijd, the Dutch retail group Sligro is selling its Emté brand supermarkets, a meat-processing factory in Enschede, Emté’s headquarters in Veghel and the distribution centers in Kapelle and Putten to a consortium of the two retail groups Jumbo and Coop. According to De Tijd, Emté’s most recent sales figure was EUR 828m. The purchase price is said to have been EUR 410m. The deal affects around 6,200 employees, equivalent to around 2,700 full-time jobs. Two-thirds of the Emté markets are scheduled for integration into Jumbo, and one third into Coop. There are currently 130 supermarkets in the Netherlands operating under the Emté name, 34 of them managed by independent traders. Jumbo operates around 580 markets in the Netherlands, and 390 pick-up points where customers can collect the goods they ordered, and Jumbo supermarkets also offer home delivery. Jumbo and its outlets generated revenues of EUR 7.01bn. in 2017. Coop operates a total of 263 supermarkets, 143 of which are managed by independent traders. Coop’s sales in 2017 were EUR 1.18bn. +++

++ Netherlands: massive growth in online food

In clear contrast to Switzerland, online sales of foods and near-food products are gaining importance in the Netherlands. According to the Thuiswinkel Market Monitor, consumers there bought 52% more in the food/near-food category in the period from early October to mid-December 2017 than in the comparable period in the previous year. The reason for this is said to be the growing popularity of online supermarkets. Sales through online supermarkets in 2017 reached around EUR 1.1bn. www.Thuiswinkel.org observes the online retail trend in that country jointly with the local GfK (Consumer, Marketing and Sales Research Association) and PostNL. According to GfK, sales in Dutch supermarkets in 2017 rose by a total of 3.2% to EUR 35.58bn. The value of the average checkout bill rose by 6.3% to EUR 23.91, although the number of checkout bills issued fell by 2.9% at the same time. +++

-Dough Make-Up

-Proofing

-Seeders, Toppers, Pan Shakers & Water Splitters

-Depositing, Portioning, Filling and Pumping

-Ovens (Tunnel, Conveyorized, Serpentine, Tray, Rack and Deck)

-Cooling

-Pan & Product Handling Systems

-Packaging & Distribution