FDBusiness.com

GEA has brought together the long-term expertise of its leading bakery technology companies – COMAS and IMAFORNI – to build a complete line for the production of wire-cut and soft centre biscuits at the Khong Guan factory in Jakarta, Indonesia. With an average production of 1.5 tons/hr premium cookies, the new line is fully automatic and provides significant benefits in terms of product quality and consistency, productivity and reliability.

Khong Guan is a top Indonesian manufacturer specialized in biscuits, wafers and wafer sticks. The company’s success has resulted from its insistence on using the finest ingredients, the latest machinery and robotized packaging systems to meet customers’ requirements, hygiene standards and food safety regulations.

Single Supplier

The company has used Imaforni equipment before and has always been impressed with its performance. However, this was the first time Khong Guan had built a complete line using just a single supplier. “The latest addition (2016) is a soft cookie line made up of GEA Comas and GEA Imaforni equip­ment,” explains Mr Chew Soo Kok, Director of Khong Guan. “It is capable of doing jam-filled cookies, wire-cut cookies, deposited biscuits, and bars. With the help of a food technologist to fine-tune the recipes, we were able to start-up the production line in a short period of time. The line now runs wonderfully.”

The GEA line includes a high capacity DFV3 extruder capable of simultaneously depositing two different types of dough, as well as a third, fluid filling; the hybrid steel band tunnel baking oven; and all the necessary mixing and conveying equipment. But according to Marco Gandini, GEA’s Head of Bakery Applications, the technology itself is only part of the story.

“What makes this line special is the way in which the experience of both the GEA brands has been able to come together to provide the highest performing solution,” he explains. “By choosing equipment that is of the highest quality and perfectly compatible, we have been able to build a line that is reliable and capable of producing large amounts of cookies at the finest quality for Khong Guan.”

Marco also points out that in the unlikely event of a problem there can be no doubt as to who is responsible for fixing it. “It’s a 100% GEA line,” he says. “We built it and we will maintain it at optimum performance for our customer throughout its working life.”

Sometimes the relationship between customer and supplier may be critical, but not in this case: Mr Soo Kok has no doubt that he has made the right choice with GEA. “The services provided have been first class; and the engineers are well-trained, knowledgeable and friendly which made the installation and commissioning process a smooth one. The after-sales service is equally as good with prompt replies and follow-up to our queries.”

Indonesian Market

With the increase in population in Indonesia and good economic growth, the market size for Khong Guan’s products has grown tremendously. The purchasing power of the Indonesian consumer has grown and the middle-income population is increasing and so Mr Soo Kok believes that the market will continue to grow. “However, we must introduce better quality products and new varieties of biscuits and cookies,” he explains. “To prepare ourselves for the future, we will need to continue to invest in good, and reliable equipment to ensure a high quality production output.”

All food manufacturers operate in an intensely competitive environment in which the highest standards of hygiene, production, and product innovation are essential to prosper. By choosing GEA to provide a complete production line, Khong Guan has ensured that its facilities are world class and has secured the combined expertise of some of the industry’s finest process engineers to make sure that its leading position is maintained well into the future.