Tomra Food served up a wealth of new developments at this year’s Fruit Logistica, unveling a new brand strategy, launching a robotic packing maching and a premium sorting machine for frozen fruits and vegetables as well as celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The new brand strategy sees the two businesses acquired by Tomra in 2018, Compac and BBC Technologies, adopt the Tomra Food brand name.
They will form a newly-created business area, Tomra Fresh Food, while Tomra Food's other operations become part of the Tomra Processed Food business area. The Tomra Food brand name will be accompanied by a new tagline, ‘Every Resource Counts’.
Michel Picandet, executive vice president and head of Tomra Food, commented: 'We are now presenting our brand to recognise how our business areas and our customers are stronger together.
“Our revised brand story also reflects how Tomra Food has set out on a more clearly defined path by reformulating strategy in the last couple of years.
“This strategy is based on three pillars: on growth, to grow the business faster and better; on excellence, to be best-in-class in everything we do; and on talent, to take care of our people and support their development. Updating our brand story will also help attract new talent to Tomra.'
New robotic packer
Tomra Fresh Food introduced a new robotic packing machine, the KETE16. This is the first robotic packer capable of matching the speed and capacity of the fastest clamshell and punnet fillers while also offering flexibility in pack type and case configuration.
The KETE16 diverts a single stream of punnets into four streams, presents the packages to be picked up according to configuration, then packs the product (anything from fruit, vegetables, confectionary, nuts, etc.) into punnets and clamshells.
A scalable design can add automation to everything from small operations to large-scale packing facilities and keep pace with the CURO16, the fastest Fill by Weight option on the market.
Premium frozen sorting solution
Tomra Processed Food launched the Tomra 5C premium sorting machine with biometric signature identification technology for frozen Fruits and Vegetables.
This machine is located on the processing line between the IQF tunnel and the packing station to make final checks for food safety and product quality. The sorter recognises and removes any remaining foreign material, extraneous vegetable matter, and hard-to-detect product defects.
Compared to its predecessor, the Nimbus, Tomra said the 5C further enhances sorting efficiency and yields; is easier to clean and to keep running in optimum condition; and has a 5-10 per cent greater capacity.
Visitors to the fair were able to see a demonstration of the new machine broadcast online and live from Tomra’s Test Centre in Leuven, Belgium.
Speaking at a press event to present the group’s new developments, Tove Andersen, president and CEO of the Tomra Group, and Picandet made reference to the group’s long history and revealed their vision for the future.
Andersen commented: 'Fifty years after its humble beginnings, Tomra can be proud of the fact that it is a highly respected global market leader. This is living proof of our ability to adapt, innovate, and provide the solutions our customers really need.
“This is also a time to look forward because we are now opening the chapter in Tomra’s story where we step up our role leading the resource revolution.”
Picandet said the company was committed to leading the resource revolution in a world where every piece of food counts. “We are on a mission to transform and help our customers feed the world, improve yield, minimise waste, and create sustainable value.
“Focusing on sorting and grading, and working closely with our customers, we can improve the value of food from harvesting to processing and packing, and even to distribution and consumption, considering the great value of the digital tools and data we provide.'
