Baking & Snack - October 2017 - 16
Bartsch heads new VMI subsidiary for North America VMI, Saint-Hilaire-de-Loulay, France, a designer and manufacturer of mixing systems for the baking and snack industries, announced the opening of its North American subsidiary, VMI America, LLC. The new entity will house a satellite office in Kansas City, MO, near partner company Shick Esteve. Bartsch Terry Bartsch was recently named president and CEO to lead the new operation. Mr. Bartsch has been involved with the baking industry for more than 35 years, of which he spent more than two decades selling industrial mixing equipment. Most recently, Mr. Bartsch served as vice-president and sales director for Shaffer Manufacturing, a Bundy Baking Solution, Urbana, OH. "VMI looks forward to drawing on Terry's experience and expertise to build a strong presence and serve its customers in the North American markets," said Dominique Denoël, CEO of VMI. A world leader in mixing technology, VMI's offerings include two types of continuous mixing systems and automated linear transport systems, as well as horizontal, vertical and planetary mixers. "The launch of VMI North America will develop better working relationships with customers in this region," Mr. Bartsch said. "In addition to providing service in similar time zones as our customers, we will also maintain a local stock of critical spare parts and local service assistance." The company will soon open a testing facility for current and potential customers to run various product trials and factory acceptance tests. Handtmann opens new Customer Center Handtmann, Inc. opened a $9 million expanded Handtmann Customer Center on its corporate headquarter campus in Biberach, Germany. Cesar Zelaya, bakery sales and technology manager, announced the company's expansion of testing and training opportunities for US and Canadian customers at Process Expo in Chicago. Handtmann's research, demonstration and training capabilities for North American customers cover several topics. Topics include dough dividing processes; portioning doughs and products into moulds, trays or other containers; forming and producing specially shaped food from a wide variety of raw materials; depositing fillings in continuous and spot depositing modes; and extruding dough sheets as an endless sheet and portioning doughs, pastes and products for downstream packaging. According to Mr. Zelaya, the expansion fits well with the company's North American bakery efforts to demonstrate the dough handling advantages of Handtmann's adjustable vane cell technology. He said the capability for full production line testing is beneficial for North American bakery customers when evaluation metrics, including flexibility, reliability and total cost of performance, are more detailed than ever. Bühler acquires The Haas Group The Bühler Group, Uzwil, Switzerland, acquired The Haas Group, an Austrian-based creator of wafer, biscuits and confectionery production systems. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Bühler said the acquisition enables it to complete its consumer foods product portfolio while offering Haas access to Bühler's global resources, including its roughly 100 service centers and innovation network. "Out of a position of strength, we are entrusting the future of our company to the family-owned Bühler Group," said Johann Haas, member of the supervisory board. "This allows us to create the best possible conditions for successfully continuing the development of our business to benefit both our customers and our employees." With its global workforce of 1,750, Haas generates sales rev- enues of about €300 million ($360 million) and operates its own manufacturing sites in six countries. With the current transfer of the company to Bühler, the former owners said they want to continue the long-term success of the business. "Today's market and technology trends, whose impact and speed will continue to increase, have prompted us to take this step," Mr. Haas said. Offering complete solutions and further automation and digitization will become increasingly important into the future, he added. - Holly Demaree, World Grain ADM and Mayo Clinic to develop nutrient prediction model Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), Chicago, announced a collaboration with Mayo Clinic in personalized nutrition. The company will work with Mayo Clinic's Microbiome Program to investigate microbial solutions to improve health and wellness. The goal of the collaboration is to develop a personalized nutrition model that predicts the effects of probiotics, prebiotics 16 Baking & Snack October 2017 / www.bakingandsnack.com and other metabolites - as well as other nutrients in microbiome shifts - for improving individual health. In the initial phase, ADM and Mayo Clinic will work to design a computational method for testing probiotics, metabolites and other intervention strategies that promote the growth of gut microbes linked to healthy body weight.
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