Interview to Vanni Antonello - Application Manager at GEA Group

Under what premise and purpose does GEA currently work and design products and services?

At the heart of GEA's services and products lies the customer, with their expectations, needs and product.

That is the main goal when designing our systems and, in so doing, we set ourselves apart from other market players while keeping a special focus on the following:

Design:

• Utmost flexibility: in today's rapidly evolving market, it is more necessary than ever to be able to rely on highly flexible systems and machinery designed to meet our customers' current and future needs.
• A single technology partner: having a single contact person during the key stages of the process, from handling raw materials to packaging, involves working with specialists who can solve the various issues that arise and transfer their knowledge to their customers' staff.
• Tailormade approach: customers have various requirements, but by drawing on its expertise in designing and manufacturing systems and machinery, GEA can meet customer demands promptly and efficiently.

Service:

The extensive network of GEA enables our sales staff and specialist technicians to support our customers at all times and provide assistance at short notice.

In addition, we offer customer service packages such as:

• Health check: one of our specialized technicians will visit the plant twice a year to inspect its condition and maintenance, check operational efficiency, and recommend which spare parts need to be ordered depending on machine conditions (in this day and age, unplanned downtime is a cost that must be absolutely avoided).
• Differentiating service offering with various packages: bronze, silver and gold, with an increasing number of services that can be agreed with the customer in order to keep the costs of routine maintenance and, at higher levels, extraordinary maintenance under control.

According to your vision and experience, what is the key to a successful process in pet food?

Reliability, sustainability and automation.

These three elements are what make the difference in a competitive market such as the Petfood market.

• Reliable machinery, which enables customers to obtain quality product without production downtime to avoid profit loss.
• Sustainability, which is to be achieved by using energy-efficient systems.
• And state-of-the-art automation, which allows the parameters of the system to be promptly adjusted in order to maximize its output.

How do you see medium-term development in the pet food processing area?

Flexibility will become increasingly crucial for making strategic choices regarding products and, consequently, technology as well.

The petfood market is increasingly influenced by trends that are driven by taste preferences as well as dietary and medical/care requirements. Pet food can no longer be considered merely as food, but rather as a supplement to medical treatment that can be used to address animal health problems, and is highly recommended by vets.

What proposals will the company present in terms of innovation in 2024?

When it comes to technological advances, GEA focuses not only on researching new machinery but also on solutions that can improve the current state of the art, so that we can equip our customers with the means to keep up with the latest market trends.

With this approach in mind, GEA is making major investments in sustainability by developing energy-saving solutions that consume less water, as well as in automation by developing sensors which, by incorporating artificial intelligence, will allow customers to make their systems more productive and autonomous.

Source: GEA Group