Factory expansion opens global export opportunities for Van Dyck.

An expansion to their factory has opened new global export opportunities for a New Plymouth Food Manufacturer. The ambitious undertaking, completed by Van Dyck Fine Foods has more than doubled its factory size and production capabilities.

Inge Vercammen, Sales Director of Van Dyck Fine Foods believes this allows Van Dyck to vigorously and proactively target export clients for growth.

“The new factory means we can more than double our production, which means we can respond quickly and meet large export orders anywhere on the globe,” Vercammen says.

The Factory has been expanded by 2000m2, and now can manufacture15,000 hotcakes per hour, compared to 6000 per hour before the upgrade.

Marcel Naenen, an experienced International Bakery Engineer and Director of Van Dyck Fine Foods, scoured the globe to find the best equipment in terms of quality and production speed. This included an upgraded and improved version of the baking-line equipment, he co-designed for a client as a Partner in his own company in Belgium fifteen years ago!

‘The mixing units come from Italy, the baking-line comes from France, the freezing equipment from Finland, the flour-handling equipment from Belgium, and the packing machine is from Germany, which is specifically designed for our unique packaging needs,’ Naenen says.

The new equipment will be used exclusively to manufacture Hotcakes. Van Dyck has the technology to include fruit or other specialised ingredients to their Hotcakes including Belgian Chocolate, Strawberry, Blueberry and other inclusions on request.

The factory expansion has allowed for much greater export potential. Van Dyck Fine Foods has recently signed a contract with Markwell Australia to provide their full range of hotcakes to supermarkets throughout Australia. The company also has various different prospects, some well advanced in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and China.

In the past financial year Van Dyck Fine Foods shipped twenty 40ft containers of crepes & hotcakes overseas, half of which were supplied for KFC Malaysia and Singapore. In the local market the company has had strong annual growth, reporting thirty three percent in retail and six percent in the foodservice/hospitality sector.