Fruit and vegetable processor Heemskerk fresh & easy have reached an agreement with their neighbour to take over their building. The building is being used by Pacombi Horti, part of packing material supplier Pacombi Group, at the moment and is 100 metres away from Heemskerk's current company building. The reason for this purchase is the continued growth of the Rijnburgse company. With the building Heemskerk has 9,000 m2 extra company space available. In 2014 the company expanded to 27,000 m2. IN 2019 there will be an additional 1,000 m2 of high care space added to meet the increasing demand for meal and lunch salads. Heemskerk predicts that in the future this 28,000 m2 will not be enough to meet the demand and has therefore bought the neighbouring building.
In the new company space Heemskerk will produce products with large volumes. Products like endive, cauliflower, iceberg lettuce, rucola and field lettuce are eligible for this. These are almost fully automated and robotic processes that can be produced even more efficiently like this. In the current location there is further investment in making all other product, in which robotics and automation are being rolled out as well. Heemskerk sees that the pressure on labour is increasing and wants to play into this on time. Good employees remain crucial to Heemskerk in key areas. For repetitive labour, however, Heemskerk sees an increasing challenge in trying to find the right people. Last summer, despite the explosive demand as a result of the warm weather and the raw material troubles due to the drought, they managed to achieve a delivery performance of 99.8%. This required extra organisation and input, which translated into high labour costs. Robotising projects that are ongoing are: laying bags of dressing, peppers, coring iceberg lettuce, packing trays in boxes/crates and dividing orders by store. Last year a number of robots were taken into production, next year another 25 robots are expected to join them.
The demand for healthy and easy continues. Like the importance of fruit and vegetables. Although Heemskerk has been active on the market with cut vegetable since 1960, this product group is more popular than ever. Heemskerk plays into this by continually innovating with new products and concepts. As well as cut vegetables the company also produces meal salads, fruit salads and meal and soup packets. Around 3.5 million packets go to large retail and fast food chains at home and abroad every week.
For more information:
W. Heemskerk
Vinkenweg 32
2230 AC Rijnsburg
+31(0)71 402 23 38
info@wheemskerk,nl
www.wheemskerk.nl