October 4, 2011

Sokolow consolidates all cold cuts slicing activities in Poland

Danish Crown's subsidiary, Sokolow, is building a 13,700 square metre extension at its factory in Sokolow Podlaski, Poland, in a bid to consolidate all its cold cuts slicing activities that are currently located in several locations.

"Traditionally, Polish consumers have bought their cold cuts at the delicatessen counter, but the market for ready-packed sliced products is seeing strong growth, while the retail structure is rapidly becoming more and more modern. Large retail chains are gaining ground, and there is an increasing demand for deliveries to be made to central warehouse facilities. Sokolow is at the leading edge of this development thanks to investments in the central slicing plant," explains Tom Vedby Jørgensen, Danish Crown's consultant in Poland.

Sokolow is a partially owned subsidiary in the Danish Crown group. During the planning phase, a delegation from Sokolow visited Tulip's factories in Oldenburg in Germany as well as the UK to ensure the factory was geared for the future and to share know-how with others in the Danish Crown group.

"In light of their experience, a factory has been designed which will have no problems meeting the very highest EU standards as regards product safety," says Tom Vedby Jørgensen.

At the same time, storage capacity has been increased for the products which will be sliced, and the production facility has been extended so it is now longer than originally planned.

"Each new generation of modern slicing lines tends to be that bit longer than the last. Therefore, extra floorspace has been built to accommodate future developments," says Tom Vedby Jørgensen.

A large proportion of the products will be produced on site at the large factory in Sokolow Podlaski, where the Sokolow headquarters are also located. Other products will be transferred to the slicing facility from Sokolow's six other factories in Poland. Initially, the slicing lines that are currently being used at other factories will be transferred. Then the lines will be gradually replaced with new, high-performance upgrades.

Production continues to grow at the factory, and it is getting more and more crowded in the packing department and dispatch stores, so all the employees are greatly looking forward to the new department. The plan is for production at the new extension to commence in Q2 2012, with 200 people working there.

Specifications-wise, the size of foundations will be 9,000 square meter while the total floor area on the upper level is 13,700 square meter. There will be space for 12 production lines at the facility; in the long term, production capacity is expected to increase to more than 2,500 tonnes a month. Finally, the warehouse capacity for semi-finished and finished products will total 900 tonnes.