Food Marketing & Technology - India June 2019 | Page 42
Packaging
MAT BØRSEN AND SEALPAC JOIN FORCES TO
LAUNCH INNOVATIVE CLICK-ON SOUP TRAY
AT RETAILER MENY IN NORWAY
Norwegian company MatBørsen AS (www.matborsen.no) was founded in 1994 by Freddy Henriksen and his two sons. Building on their
previous success in meat products, they decided to switch to the growing segment of ready meals. Today, one of the sons, Dag Freddy
Henriksen, is still running the company. Since 2012, his son Freddy André Henriksen, grandson to the founder of MatBørsen, holds the position
of Controller, making him responsible for finance, purchasing and project management. As such, he is strongly involved in the company’s new
investments. We talked to him about a click- on soup tray that was launched at Meny retail stores in 2017, for which MatBørsen invested in a
line solution primarily based on SEALPAC equipment.
Investing in growth
In the year 2001, MatBørsen moved
to its current production site in
Stokke. Since then, business has been
on the rise. Turnover went from 20
million Norwegian Kroner in 2001 to
approximately 650 million Norwegian
Kroner in 2018. Last year alone,
MatBørsen’s production volume grew
by 35%. In 2012, NorgesGruppen
ASA took over the company. Freddy
André Henriksen: “This takeover gave
us the muscles to grow. As a result,
we have been able to invest around
130 million Norwegian Kroner in
equipment, including the new line for
our click-on soup tray.” Nowadays,
MatBørsen employs 230 people,
but it still has the atmosphere of a
familyowned company. In its central
hall, the first thing one notices is this
slogan: Good taste and a simpler
everyday life by being the best in
what we do. It describes MatBørsen
well: the company’s key success
factor is producing homemade ready
meals with high-quality ingredients.
Henriksen: “We maintain our quality
by appointing ‘chefs’ in the company.
These are not real chefs, like in a
restaurant, but they are our company’s
ambassadors. Every batch we produce
must be tasted by one of our 20 chefs,
which is the best quality control we can
have!”
Continuous innovation
Next to the homemade products,
MatBørsen differentiates itself by
offering flexibility. Henriksen: “We
have batches of 100 kg, but also produce
up to 15 tons of a single product.
Therefore, our equipment must be able
to handle a large variety of products
with different outputs. This is unique
for a mid-sized company like ours.”
Another characteristic of MatBørsen is
its high level of innovation. Henriksen:
“We are constantly developing ready
meal concepts. In 2017, we introduced
60 new products at retail in a period
of just two months. By doing so, we
want our retail customers to be able
to distinguish themselves from other
retailers.
Like we have done with the click-on
soup tray that we are producing for
Meny since 2017.” First contact with
SEALPAC
In 2009, MatBørsen purchased its first
SEALPAC traysealer after visiting
the European Seafood Exposition in
Brussels. They were looking for an
efficient line to produce their existing
range of Fresk & Ferdig (Fresh &
Food Marketing & Technology
42
June 2019