Innovations defy cost pressures

As strange as it may sound, difficult economic times mean good times for the sweets & bakery industries COST pressures and fierce competition are dominating the confectionery producers?markets. The manufacturers must therefore keep production costs as low as possible while also trying to make their products more attractive at the point of sale through innovative, userfriendly and high quality packaging, which also takes into account sustainability. 揝hrinking volumes of confectionery still increase turnover,?retailing trade Lebensmittel Zeitung reported at the end of August in reference to the figures of the Munich-based trading association Sweets Global Network. With rising prices, turnover in the confectionery trade in the first six months of 2009 increased by 0.3 percent to €5.293 billion. However, the volume sold declined by 2.2 percent to 818,104 tonnes. Sweets Global Network notes that consumers are happy to purchase snacks, ready-to-eat cakes and pralines. In the area of chocolate bars, chilled sweet bars and foam kisses, the trade recorded substantial declines in some cases. Sweets as a reward in times of crisis As strange as it may sound, difficult economic times mean good times for the confectionery industry. This idea still prevails and is lifting the sector's spirits. Less time for traditional meal preparation increases overall demand for products such as pastries, packaged bread and biscuits Savory snacks are doing especially well with double-digit growth in turnover, of which the most important sub-segment was potato crisps with a 15.8 percent increase in turnover in the merry month of May 2009. In the area of sweets and snacks, consumers are also increasingly focusing on 揾ealthy?products. This trend on the product side is just as important to the consumer as sustainable production of sweet and savory products. Resource-conserving production can also be used for marketing products. Sustainability is very popular and in big demand among consumers. 揂ir and energy consumption, noise pollution and thermal balance have become an integral part of our specifications,?Koelnmesse GmbH quoted the sales manager of a wellknown manufacturer of machines for producing tubular bags. However, these are by no means all the demands that must be met by technicians today. Koelnmesse organizes ISM, the world's largest trade fair for confectionery and bakery products, in Cologne. In the confectionery segment the following trends are being established: Packaging systems should be able to produce conventional packaging as well as smaller packaging with accordingly low adjustment work. For special, temporary sales promotions a high degree of flexibility is required ?it must be possible to carry out changeover with only very short interruptions to production. Here, ease of operation is just as important as speed. The changeover of the plant must not place high demands in terms of training the plant's operations staff, as expenditures for personnel are a considerable driver of costs for sweets and snack manufacturers. An effect of the growing cost pressures for the producers is that expenditure on packaging processes must continue to decrease. At the same time the systems must also be able to handle more tasks in order to meet the increasing demands in terms of packaging quality. Price-conscious producers have recognized that it is the running costs that make the difference in reducing packaging costs, and not the purchase price of a facility. This means the machine manufacturers?packaging processes must be highly efficient on a daily basis, with minimal waste. In addition to high output numbers, this also requires short cleaning times, high machine availability, sustainable reduction of energy and packaging materials and short maintenance and changeover times. The plants must be designed in a way that requires only a minimum of operating personneladidas superstar damen glitzer silber