Kronen creating processing line for Argentina’s largest supermarket chain

Kronen has taken a big step forward in a major processing line project its working on for Argentina’s largest supermarket chain, which also has a collection of associated restaurants.

A complete processing line, designated for Argentina ́s biggest supermarket chain COTO C.I.C.S.A., was set up before its shipment overseas from Kronen’s facilities in Germany.

With its official sales representative in Argentina, Alejandro Nowak, Kronen has been collaborating with a team of COTO throughout the duration of the project.

Originally a butchery with a growing number of branches in the 1970s in Buenos Aires, over the last decades COTO has evolved to become Argentina’s largest domestic supermarket retailer after opening the first in 1987. Today, COTO operates more than 120 branches of supermarkets, hypermarkets and shopping centers whose product range consists of many home brands and which are supplied by own slaughterhouses, a distribution and production center of 110.000 m2 and a large logistics fleet. Many of the branches offer a variety of freshly cooked meals for reasonable prices in their associated restaurants.

With a steady expansion of its supermarket branches and shopping centers, also the number of restaurants grew so at COTO the need for supplying the restaurants with ready-to-cook ingredients emerged. COTO decided to create a central production plant to facilitate quality control and ensure a consistent quality of the meals in all of its restaurants. Furthermore, by implementing the different machines included in the line many processes can be automated. Operation of the line only requires very few employees and its different modules guarantee a maximum of flexibility.

At the central production facility of the ready-to-cook ingredients for COTO ́s restaurants, the processing line will be used to produce cubes, strips or slices of different vegetables (e.g. potatoes, carrots and ready-to-serve salad), all products packed in packages for distribution to the restaurants.

In order to peel, cut, wash and de-water vegetables as well as to cut, wash and de-water salad and to pack the resulting ready-to-cook/ready-to-serve products, the processing line consists of: a potato water bunker belt, two PL 40K potato peeling machines, a roller sorting table, a conveyor belt, a KUJ V cube, strip and slice cutting machine, a GS 10-2 belt cutting machine with a trimming table on one side and a conveyor belt at the other, a GEWA 2600V ECO washing machine which leads to a K650 drying system and ultimately to a GKS UP 500 packaging machine integrated in a gantry with a weighing system. The different modules of the line can also be operated individually, allowing for great flexibility and various uses.

Upon completion of the manufacturing of all machines that are part of the complete processing line, the line was tested with various products in Kehl in order to ensure optimal functionality. Such kind of tests are part of every delivery process of processing lines, which serve as quality control and are a fixed and crucial component in the Kronen project management. Thus, the project team also ensures that customer requirements are met and it serves as a preparation for a successful installation at the customer facility.

For more information on Kronen’s capabilities, visit the company’s website.