World Grain - January 2011 - 36

FEATURE: SUSTAINING SUCCESS

SASKO's Malmesbury plant includes a bagging facility where the mill's various products are prepped for shipping.

ment supplier to this project with Gerrie
Rudolph serving as the project engineer.
The mill features a fairly standard
product flow. A series of chain conveyors and a bucket elevator transfer the
wheat from the storage bins to the flour
mill. The Malmesbury mill's cleaning
section includes a variety of Buhler
equipment including a Combi Cleaner, a
moisture control unit, several automatic
flow balancers and a horizontal scourer. The milling section features eight
Buhler Newtronic MDDO-1250/250
roller mills, four Newtronic MDDM1250/250 roller mills, a pneumatic
product conveying system and several
Buhler Sirius MPAK-1025 and 825
plansifters.
The mill's control systems are the
PLC = Modicon-Premier and SCADA -
Wonderware ARCHESTRA.
Carstens said the Malmesbury mill
sources most of its wheat from the surrounding Swartland area and produces
cake flour, white bread flour, brown
bread flour, bran products, self-raising
flour and bake mixes. The flour is sold in
a variety of bag sizes ranging from 50 ki36

lograms to 500 grams. He said the flour is
sold under the SASKO brand name and
is sold to predominately smaller industrial applications (bakeries), wholesale and
retail customer segments.
Carstens noted that the mill is situated adjacent to one of Pioneer Foods'
major regional distribution centers that
features state-of-the art distribution
planning and warehouse management
systems. The facility has 45 flour storage bins with a total storage capacity of
4,000 tonnes of flour. While the facility
can make bulk flour deliveries, the primary focus is on packaged flour, he said.
STRATEGIC GROWTH
Pioneer Foods ranks among the leading milling companies in South Africa
and has sustained such a position over
many years. The company is a significant player in the wheat milling industry
with the company's goal being "to optimize milling utilization as best as possible on a national basis." With that goal
in mind, Carstens said the individual
mills are customized from a product and
packing design standpoint.

Pioneer Foods' SASKO division
operates seven wheat mills and three
maize mills throughout South Africa.
The wheat mills are based in Malmesbury, Paarl, Port Elizabeth, Durban,
Krugersdorp, Bethlehem and Polokwane. The company's white maize mills
are located in Klerksdorp, Estcourt and
Aliwal North. SASKO also operates
rice and legume packing plants in Cape
Town and Durban.
Carstens noted that wheat milling has
been a core element of Pioneer Foods'
business for many years and is also a key
to its business strategy going forward.
"The investment decision was made
on the basis of provision for long-term
growth, the replacement of dated equipment and the need and desire to upgrade
to higher levels of technology to benefit
from efficiency gains such as higher
levels of cake flour and total extraction,
improved overall yield and moisture
control," Carstens said.
SASKO's main products in the wheat
flour segment are cake flour (low color),
white bread flour and brown bread flour.
A complete bake mix range of products
January 2011 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - January 2011

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