PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES
FOUNDATION FOR GROWTH
ISHIDA
ISHIDA THE ‘NATURAL’ CHOICE FOR
ARTISAN POTATO CHIPS
The collaboration between Belsia, a
high-quality artisan French potato chip
manufacturer, and Ishida, world leader in
weighing and packing line solutions for
the food industry, underlines the care and
support that the company can provide to
help small start-up companies achieve a
foothold in the market and build a foundation
for sustained growth.
Based in Beauce in Northern France, Belsia
was established in 2015 when Matthieu and
Clémence Maisons decided to devote 10
hectares of the family’s 160-hectare farm to
growing the Lady Claire potato variety, whose
intrinsic qualities are ideal for the production
of high-end potato chips. First marketed
in 2016 to local supermarkets, the potato
chips, which are hand produced using 100%
natural ingredients in four tasty varieties,
quickly became a great success, reflected by
ever-increasing volumes – 50 tons of potatoes
processed in 2016, 150 tons in 2017, 300 tons
in 2018 and 500 tons planned for 2019.
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AN ON-GOING COLLABORATION
The first contact between Matthieu Maisons
and Stéphane Woigt, regional sales manager
at Ishida, took place during an exhibition in
Paris and a dialogue was maintained during
Belsia’s early years, during which time the
company relied on second-hand packing
equipment to process around 400kg of
potatoes per day.
“At Ishida, we do not have large or small
customers,” explains Stéphane Woigt.
“Instead, we have companies seeking the
most suitable and reliable solution for their
specific application. In the case of Belsia,
when the company first approached us, it
was not yet producing a significant enough
volume to warrant the purchase of new
equipment. However, we remained in regular
contact, providing advice and establishing
and maintaining a relationship of trust so
that, when ready, Matthieu Maisons turned to
Ishida to invest in a new potato chip packing
line.”
As Matthieu Maisons confirms: “We
appreciated that an international company
like Ishida was willing to give equal
consideration to the needs of a young
company like ours.”
COMPLETE RESPONSIBILITY
In 2018, after an assessment of three
manufacturers, Belsia chose Ishida to
devise a complete turnkey line with a
small footprint, with Ishida assuming full
responsibility for the entire installation and
its performance.
During the 1990s, Ishida devised an
integrated snacks packing solution,
featuring a weigher mounted directly over
a VFFS bagmaker to deliver valuable space
savings. The multihead and bagmaker work
in perfect harmony to deliver the highest
speeds, efficiency and pack quality, without
compromising Ishida’s proven precision and
accuracy.