Tetra Pak has strengthened its product offering for ice cream producers with the acquisition of Edertal-based Big Drum Engineering, a leading supplier of medium to high volume filling machines for the global ice cream market.
Tetra Pak already offers a complete range of ice cream equipment, including raw material storage, mix production, continuous freezing and incorporation, as well as production solutions for moulded and extruded ice cream products. The acquisition of the Big Drum Engineering GmbH will strengthen the company's presence in the „packaged“ ice cream segment (e.g. in cups and cones), which accounts for almost half of the global packaged ice cream market.
„With this acquisition, we can now offer an even broader range of production solutions for ice cream manufacturers and expand our collaboration with them. This in turn allows us to add even more value by ensuring efficiency through our technical service across a range of equipment and supporting product development and marketing activities for the entire portfolio,“ explains Monica Gimre, Executive Vice President, Processing Systems at Tetra Pak.
Big Drum Engineering GmbH, headquartered in Edertal, Germany, is a leading supplier of Filling machines for medium to high production volumes for the global ice cream market. The company is a renowned supplier to major brands and is recognised for its innovation, quality and performance. Hans-Peter Trosse and Matthias Ruppert, Managing Directors of Big Drum Engineering GmbH, see significant growth opportunities with Tetra Pak at their side: „We are convinced that we can support our customers even better thanks to Tetra Pak's global presence, extensive sales and service channels, technical support and expertise in the field of food production.“ Following the acquisition, all managers and employees of Big Drum Engineering GmbH will remain with the company at its current location.
Extrusion line for ice cream
For medium-sized producers, a New extrusion line Unrivalled product quality and volume flexibility: Tetra Pak is the first company in the industry to use an independently controlled horizontal cutter on the new line to cut the ice cream as it exits the extruder. This patented technology ensures that the cutting speed remains consistently fast, regardless of the process line speed, resulting in a consistent product quality even at low production speeds. Precise, clean cut is guaranteed.
Ice cream producers can switch between several products on the same process line, be it stick ice cream, sandwich ice cream, croissant ice cream, ice cream in waffle cups, bars or cakes, while maintaining the highest possible quality. With an output of 5,000 to 18,000 products per hour, the process line offers medium-sized producers the much-needed Volume flexibility and enables them to increase or decrease production output without sacrificing efficiency.
