JASA celebrates 30th anniversary with demo week

JASA has now been around for 30 years. To celebrate this, the vertical packaging machines manufacturer (based in Alkmaar) organized 'demo-days' for interested parties. Although the manufacturer was also at Fruit Logistica, this is a better way to network: "You have more time to build relationships here," says Sandra Pannekeet. All the machines were exhibited for the occasion. According to Sandra, Jasa's machines should be 'vandal-proof' and flexible: "They must be able to quickly switch between different products without it costing too much time or hassle. In addition, the machines must be able to easily work for many different people." According to Sandra, the Netherlands is ahead in the packaging of convenience goods: "The German market is still largely focused on packaging potatoes and onions. Packaging freshly cut vegetables/ready-to-eat products is still in it's infancy."

The directors of JASA

The directors of JASA

After the lunch Sandra presented JASA's current state of affairs. She talked about Piet Pannekeet and how he dealt with maintaining the packaging machines in his father's vegetable cutting company under the name Pannekeet Machine Onderhoud (Pannekeet Machine Maintenance) in the 1970's. This was later changed to Pannekeet Machine Techniek, where the first vertical JASA was designed. Due to internationalization the name was eventually changed to JASA Packaging Systems in 2006. The team now consists of 50 employees and the company generates a total turnover of 12 million Euro a year."

Lunch with clients and other parties

At home and abroad

JASA supplies 50% of their products domestically, the other 50% goes abroad. 95% of sales is intended for the fresh produce sector. International supply is operated through a network of dealers. According to project leader Mitchell, the farthest destination they have is New Zealand. Dozens of JASA's are in operation there.

Tour for international partners

A simple base

How does Piet look back on the first 30 years? "So much has happened. You start somewhere as a company and it grows almost imperceptibly into something beautiful. Now we are looking for more stability when operating in the international market." Piet compares building machinery with building cars: "The concept remains the same: four wheels that bring the user from A to B. A simple base that is infinitely susceptible to innovation. We are going to focus on the flexibility of the machines. Innovation is important. In the past, innovation was often sacrificed for ongoing projects. However, we are going for a more market oriented approach. We have a separate R&D department made up of 7 people who work full time on innovation and developing new products."

The factory

Innovation

An example of this innovation is the development of a bag that can hold 2 to 5 different compartments. This innovation will be presented in supermarkets at the end of this year. The different compartments can help prevent wasting food. A topic that will be discussed at a meeting with several foreign customers and dealers. For the first time in ten years they are almost all at JASA at the same time. Piet: "This is the third time we have done this and it has gone well. Here on site we have better contact with the parties and we know what is happening."

At the meeting the development of JASA's vertical packaging machine for the red-yellow-green bell peppers will be discussed. According to Mitchell, the bell pepper is a difficult product to pack: "The vertical machines have to pack them quickly without damaging them. That is why we are continuously working on accuracy. The vertical servo technology replaces the regular flow pack that can be 20 meters long and therefore takes up significantly more space than the vertical solution. "In addition, we don't need employees for this anymore because the bell peppers don't have to be manually put in."

Presenting the machines

Installation

Another trend that JASA is involved with is ready-to-eat meal salads. The new arm quickly prints an accurate sleeve to place onto the bowl. JASA's machines make use of either a Siemens operating system or their own system. JASA has a contract with Siemens which makes service abroad easier. "We are also now building our own operating system to be able to read data more easily and increase user convenience. Moreover, we are not stuck with Siemens' static system," says Mitchell. The best selling machine is the Quickpack. The JASA 250, 350 and 350 CM series are also quite popular."

Jasa 250, Jasa 350 and the Jasa 350B

The demo week concluded on Saturday June 13th with a very well attended Open Day for staff, family, neighbours and other interested parties.

For more information:
JASA
Stephanie Hulshoff
E: s.hulshoff@jasa.nl
T: 072-5612700
www.jasa.nl