Danish Crown Prince opened Arla’s new office in Malaysia

Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik opened Arla’s new office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 30. This will serve as the dairy cooperative’s main office for all of the company’s activities in Asia. Representatives from Malaysian ministries and European embassies were present.

“We are very proud that the Crown Prince is opening our new head office in Kuala Lumpur. This sends a strong signal about our ambitious plans for the Asian market,” said Jesper Colding, senior vice president for Arla’s Asian business unit, in a company statement.

Arla Foods, owned by 13,500 farmers from Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Germany, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands, calls Asia (population 2.3 billion) “crucial” to its growth. Asia has a raw milk deficit which presents the co-op with significant opportunities for dairy export.

In a press release, Arla noted: “China has been a strategic growth market for Arla for many years, while South East Asia (SEA) has been identified as a region that has the potential to become a new strategic growth market. For this reason, Arla will focus on China first and foremost but there are many similarities between the Asian markets, which the company hopes to take advantage of.”

Q2 sales rise 8% for Mexican dairy processor Grupo Lala

The Mexican dairy company Grupo Lala this week said sales for the second quarter rose 8% (to 11,847 billion pesos, unaudited) and net income increased 18.6%. In a statement, Lala CEO Scot Rank said: "Our plans to accelerate sales are on track and second quarter 2015 reflected the highest sales increase since the third quarter of 2013. This strong growth, combined with gross margin expansion, resulted in a very strong quarterly profit."

Belgian dairy processor Friesland Campina completes upgrade of milk bottling lines

Dairy processor Friesland Campina upgraded two milk lines earlier this year with new bottle designs at a plant in Aalter, Belgium. Increased efficiency was a goal. The lines process and fill flavored milk beverages in HDPE bottles. For hygienic reasons the bottles are sent to the filling lines with the neck closed (lost head blown bottles) and the lost head is cut or spin trimmed before the bottles are filled.

The project consisted of:

• Incorporation of four new SB410 neck trimmers (two trimmers per line) with capacity to feed 14,000 bottles per hour (bph) to each of the filler’s lane, running three different bottle sizes (200-, 250- and 500-ml three-layer HDPE bottles).
• Modifications of the existing air conveyor systems to allow the accommodation of the trimmers in between bottle unscramblers and fillers.
• Modification of the existing scrap transport systems that take the trimmed lost head to the plant re-grinder, adapting the connection pipes and scrap blowers to the four neck trimmer units.

Equipment supplier Maer of Massanes, Spain, helped the dairy upgrade the lines with new lost head trimmers. In a Maer press release, Friesland Campina Project Manager Erwin Bailliere said, “We needed to have good performing and consistent neck trimmers to solve lots of short stops before our filler. The new neck trimming technology had to be highly reliable and improve the accuracy of the cut and quality of neck finish to avoid any possible neck sealing and capping issues. After looking closely to the technology and solution they proposed, we entrusted this job to Maer for their quality, reputation and experience.”

He said the Overall Equipment Efficiency of both lines increased “significantly.” 

Expo Pack Mexico moves to new venue for 2016 show

Expo Pack México is moving to the Expo Bancomer Santa Fe on the western side of Mexico City, said show producer PMMI. The next edition of the show is May 17–20, 2016.