Background

Anderson Engineering was approached by Peter Nicolas, owner of AR brands, who had the objective to start a new business, manufacturing mayonnaise. He believed that as a start up business he could take a small market share from the major players i.e. Cross & Blackwell and Nola, and his strategy was to position the business near to the Sunflower Oil mill (reduced transport cost) and being located in PMB was well positioned to serve all markets in South Africa and Africa. He also engaged Dupont for specific formulation knowledge and formulated an egg free mayonnaise. Several meeting with Dupont were required to clarify the process requirements for the formulation and this was followed by a specification of the required equipment required, which would provide sufficient product growth capacity, volumes and capabilities which are anticipated for AR brands over a 5 year period.

The project

Anderson Engineering came up with several unique processing steps which were incorporated into the overall process design of the project. It was made clear that Peter required a high quality, no compromise, food processing plant to meet major retailers standards. We were given the instruction to

proceed with the project in August 2014, and the manufacturer of the equipment, delivery and installation took approximately 6 months.

The project was a full turnkey solution which incorporated the following equipment:

•Anderson 1,000 litre Contramix vessel

•2 x 2,000 litre storage tanks

•4 x premix vessels

•CIP system

•Reverse Osmosis Water Plant

•Steam Boiler

•Automation and control system

Installation and commissioning took place early in 2015, and the plant has successfully been producing since. It has reached saturation after being in business for 18 months.

We were extremely pleased to work with and install a large turnkey project of this nature in our home town, as we normally work on projects of this nature in other parts of the country or in our Export markets.