For more than 15 years Krekenavos had been involved in pig production as its main business, but in 1993 the company decided to expand into slaughtering and fresh meat processing of pork and beef.

 

Krekenavos has worked hard to build a brand name associated with quality. Besides being ISO-9002 certified, the company is certified to export to the EU, Russia, and has received “SGS” certification from McDonalds.

 

Last year, as part of their growth strategy, Krekenavos decided to build a new facility for processing and packaging fresh meat cuts,

Gintaras Martinkus, Krekenavos Production Manager and Laisvydas Piksilingis, Baltic Pack Project Manager proudly display products from the new packaging line.

semi and finished meat products. Total price of building and installation of the new complex and machinery was around 25 million euros. At full capacity, the facility will see 150 new positions being established.

 

According to Gintaras Martinkus, Krekenavos production manager, to maintain quality standards, the company wanted to have only the most modern and hygienic processing and packaging equipment. After a long and intensive research and bidding process, Krekenavos chose CFS as the supplier.

 

CFS, through their distributor Baltic Pack in Lithuania, supplied various packaging machines including its top-of-the-line Powerpak-NT. Krekenavos felt the machines met the highest hygiene standards, were easy to operate, maintain, and to clean.

 

All packaging equipment surfaces are sloped for better water drainage. There is easy access for cleaning and servicing to all machine functions via hinged side covers. All safety covers and enclosure system stays on to help avoid contamination during cleaning. Packaging machines are 3A, BG certified and have received high ratings from AMI for hygiene.

 

Packaging machines feature independent function modules and an open control architecture easily enabling other functions or line integration. They also have hinged die set design for fast inspections or die set exchange.

 

Ease of operation is facilitated through user guidance via touch screen and easy to understand pictograms.

 

The new processing and packaging facility is key to enabling Krekenavos to expand into higher margin fresh meat cuts, semi and finished meat products. The facility is over 20,000 square metres and can produce over 1,000 tonnes of meat products.

 

The largest processed product is sausages, while most fresh meat is beef. They produce mostly under their own “Krekenavos” brand, but also do some private label for the big supermarket chains in the Baltic countries.

 

Russia is the company’s largest export market, as Krekenavos supplies packaged ground beef to McDonald’s in Moscow. It also exports beef to Germany and Halal beef to Sweden.

 

Krekenavos next plans to implement an efficiency measurement tool CostFox also from CFS. CostFox provides real time measurement and monitoring of machine efficiency and target performance comparison.

 

Krekenavos will also be installing a fat measurement x-ray system for fresh and frozen meat to help control and maintain standards for ground meat.MI

 

 

Source: Meat International Volume 19.5/6