Pandol Inc has utilised technology designed by UK-based fruit packhouse profitability experts Marco in the expansion of its cold storage and packing facility, which has now doubled in size to over 2,000m2.
The California, US-based group, a major supplier of table grapes, blueberries, persimmons and other fruit and vegetable varieties to both domestic and export markets, has installed Marco's Tract-IT Yield Control System to help reduce pack giveaway while maintaining line speeds and product quality.
According to Pandol, the installation features Marco's automatic optimisation software, which updates target weights based on real-time pack weight trends.
'We have been impressed with Marco's knowledge and really appreciate that they took time to listen to us in order to understand the diverse challenges facing our highly competitive industry here in the US,' said Andrew Pandol. 'The equipment is very easy to use and in addition to the significant savings in giveaway, we expect line speeds to increase. The calculated short-term payback time makes this a low-risk investment for us, and we are looking forward to rolling the system out in other areas of our operation.'
The newly expanded Pandol facility is set to employ over 100 people at its peak, the group said. 'It's exciting because now our expanded facility features five separate packing lines with 12 to 36 packers per line,' said Dave Bryan, Pandol's post-harvest operations manager. 'The expansion offers more flexibility and will also meet the growing demand for custom packing, including customer labelling.'
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