World Grain - June 2013 - 26

FEATURE

Rising up
from the ashes

fter a ﬁre destroyed its ﬂour mill in Verdelot, France
on June 26, 2010, French milling company Moulins
Bourgeois didn’t waste any time planning and constructing a bigger and better facility.
A new mill, which replaced a building that was nearly 200
years old, was erected with daily ﬂour production capacity
nearly doubling from 250 tonnes to 450 tonnes, with annual
production rising to 40,000 tonnes. The new ﬁve-story facility
features a modern design and state-of-the-art equipment from
Bühler AG, Uzwil, Switzerland, that gives the highly automated mill the highest level of hygiene and traceability of wheat
and ﬂour. The French consulting company, Bourbon, was involved in the design of the new mill.
Julien Bourgeois, one of several fourth-generation family members who are in leadership positions at Moulins
Bourgeois, said the ﬁre started in an electrical cabinet.
“Thankfully there were no injuries,” he said. “All the
equipment in the mill was destroyed, but thankfully the
wheat storage, cleaning section, ﬂour storage and bran storage were not damaged.”
He said one of the biggest obstacles to getting the new mill
built was obtaining a building permit following the ﬁre.
“It was a big challenge, because the plant is close to historical
monuments, such as a very old church, and the authorities asked
for a special process for the building permit, which takes more
time (three to six months),” Julien Bourgeois said. “This was a
big challenge taking into account that the insurance compensation was only possible during the 18 months after the ﬁre.”
The building permit was obtained in February 2011, general
(Above) Moulins Bourgeois sells much of its flour to local bakeries in the
Paris region. Photos courtesy of Moulins Bourgeois.
26

by Arvin Donley

Moulins Bourgeois opens larger,
more modern mill at site where its
previous plant was destroyed by fire
engineering began in January 2011 and the mill began operating Dec. 22, 2011, just three days before the end of the insurance compensation, he said.
The new mill features a second cleaning section with a light
peeling process, 13 Antares roller mills, three Sirius plansifters, all of which are made of stainless steel to promote better
sanitation. Moulins Bourgeois has obtained an ISP 22000 certiﬁcation on the safety of food, thanks to the widespread use
of stainless steel in the facility.
Additionally, a microdosing section with 10 micro-feeders
type MSDF, were added to produce the right ﬂour directly in
the ﬂow of the mill. The mill is equipped with a Bühler air
management system.
Wheat storage capacity at the facility is 4,700 tonnes,
while conditioning bin storage capacity is 560 tonnes, ﬂour
storage for bulk loading 1,600 tonnes and ﬂour storage for
bagging 400 tonnes.
Julien Bourgeois said about 70% of the ﬂour produced in
the mill is bagged and transported to customers while about
30% is transported in bulk shipments. These ﬁgures were reversed about 20 years ago, he said.
“One important challenge is to produce more and more of the
June 2013 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - June 2013

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