Incremar - When a sustainable company chooses the flexibility path

The partnership between VOLPAK and Incremar, a company from Ecuador specializing in baby food, soups, banana and soybean meal, oat flakes, maize, and soy-based beverage preparations, is recent but already solid. The range of products marketed by the South American company is rich and heterogeneous and is spread across several locally well-known brands, such as “Tapiokita” baby food, “Miss Caty” soups, and “Mulalò” soy drinks.

All Incremar products have one thing in common: the quality and search for the sustainability of the supply chain. To reach this goal, the company makes extensive efforts to develop quality processes, paying great attention to the product’s origin and using only high-end technology for its production lines.

The importance of a balanced diet

These foods are suitable for consumers of all ages and are characterized by a high nutritional value, thus helping to follow a balanced diet, a need particularly felt in Ecuador and the South American market in general. According to a United Nations study, 22.5% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean are unable to follow a healthy diet and the region has the highest cost for a healthy diet compared to the rest of the world, at USD 3.89 per person per day, while the world average is USD 3.54*. This makes the production and marketing of healthy, natural foods even more important. The post-Covid effect, which saw prolonged periods of lockdown where people cooked at home, has also revived home consumption of easy-to-prepare foods with high nutritional value, such as soups, rice, and cereals.

The best form for the right food

The pouch is the ideal form of packaging for this: it is by nature flexible, easy to handle, and durable, being able to be used for packaging a wide range of food products, both solid and liquid. For this reason, it is the form chosen by Incremar for marketing its products. To produce quality food, however, it is necessary to optimize and improve production efficiency. As demand grew, Incremar felt the need to improve production capacity and reduce manufacturing times and operational load. Foods such as noodles, rice, cereals, and maize, are characterized by different weights and volumes and require a solution able
to ensure sturdy and practical packaging in all cases, as well as convincing aesthetics. The same is true for any product: the packaging machine must be suitable for processing products of different weights, and characteristics, producing sturdy packaging, while at the same time allowing practical opening
and easy access to the contents.

One machine for many different products

To meet Incremar’s needs, VOLPAK provided a new SL 170, a machine operating from a single reel of flexible packaging material, forming the pouch, filling it with the product, and sealing it. The equipment used by Incremar is specifically designed for the packaging of soup sachets but is configurable to be able to handle different types of products. It is in fact equipped with an auger filler, suitable for packaging powdered products such as banana flour, and a volumetric filler dedicated instead to packaging solids such as cereals and maize. Proving its flexibility, SL 170 can also use different kinds of packaging films: not just standard heat-sealable, but also 100% recyclable. Finally, it features the latest version of the “Optimate”, Coesia smart and intuitive HMI, providing also low operating and maintenance costs.

Reduced costs and increased efficiency

The first months of the machine’s operation revealed great efficiency and productivity that lived up to expectations, without giving rise to any problems. The installation of the Volpak machine has contributed to the containment of personnel costs and the reduction of downtime, helping to increase the company’s overall efficiency index. There are plans to install other units within the Ecuadorian company’s facilities in the future, following the same principle adopted from the beginning of this (and other) projects: to provide customers with comprehensive support, as well as solutions focused on flexibility and working in a partnership perspective.