Compaxo saves 70 per cent gas in partnership with LTI

There is quite a lot going on in the meat and meat products industry. It is no exaggeration to say that the sector is under pressure. Compaxo Group, the company owned by the Van der Post family for the past 127 years, chooses to be transparent for this very reason. "We started this gas-saving story before the energy crisis began," he said. 

On the dike of the Hollandsche IJssel, which marks the border between the city of Gouda and the polder Het Beijersche, is the gigantic business complex of Compaxo Group (which also has a slaughterhouse in Zevenaar and production sites for meat and meat products in Almere and Belfeld). So it took a while to find the experience center, which includes the boardroom and provides space for show cooking. That's where we meet Compaxo director Jeroen van der Post, who is proud of the fact that Compaxo is one of the largest family-owned companies in the fresh meat, processed meats and vegatarian/vegan products industry. "Everything else is private equity or publicly traded." The 13 family shareholders employ 500 people in Gouda alone, producing roughly 500 different products, say approximately 500 tons per week. Ninety percent of these products are private label products for Dutch retail. 

Doors open

At Compaxo, there's a full commitment to transparency. Just open the doors. That hasn't always been the case, says head of technical services Martin Boer (30 years with the company). "In the past we didn't really step out, but nowadays we are happy to reach out in any way we can. In the last three or four years, we have invested heavily in people, resources, interior and exterior. A good part of that investment is about sustainability and energy savings. We share that story at trade fairs, with customers, in the media and on our trucks. We receive lots of positive feedback on that." 

Knowing what you're talking about

The company mentality comes from the family's values. Not too much nonsense, can do and working from trust. According to Martin, this makes for great decisiveness. This is also how Wim Littel and Joost van Moolenbroek have experienced it. They are respectively general manager and technical director of LTI, a refrigeration engineering firm that has been specializing in cooling, freezing, air conditioning and climate control for almost 30 years. Wim notices similarities between the DNA of Compaxo and LTI. "The people working here know exactly what they are talking about. And that's a great way to do business. Looking for improvement together, translating that into technology. That's where we come in. With our team of 50 experts, we are able to support our customers when they have complex technical questions. Knowledge, decisiveness and creativity go hand in hand.

Drying sausages

In 2019, Martin saw opportunities to save energy by using heat pumps and utilizing waste heat. "The management went along with this at the time. When drying sausages, for example, you have to both cool and heat. There were two machines, one of which was blowing a lot of heat into the outside air all year round. With current technology, you combine that." Compaxo went through a subsidy process and several companies applied for the project. LTI stood out from them, according to Martin. How? "Mainly by starting right away. No endless stories but simply bam, get to work. By the way, we started this before the energy crisis started. When the war caused gas prices to explode in 2022, we stepped up a gear." Wim adds: "Everyone is talking about the heat pump these days, but we're talking about a different scale here. At Compaxo, approximately 6,000 kW of heat is continuously released into the air on a summer day. With the completed installation, we now extract about 1,700 kW to reuse. The waste heat heats water to 25 degrees, the heat pump - the first of this size in the Netherlands, weighing 16 tons - raises that to 95 degrees. By doing so, we saved a complete steam boiler. Moreover, we can improve the efficiency of the current cooling systems by about 20 percent."

Continue

Nice, but not enough for Martin. "The goal is to save between 50 and 70 percent gas by the end of the year. We see plenty of opportunities. We cook our hams with steam at 130 degrees. The next project will be generating steam through the heat pumps." Can he see working with LTI again on those next projects? "Absolutely. The preliminary process, in which we tried to tackle pitfalls together, was very valuable. Really distinctive." Jeroen van der Post is especially appreciative of the enthusiasm and passion at LTI. "When Wim sends me one of those pictures of a machine with a note: 'Beautiful, isn't it?' Others might not respond to that, but I think it's awesome." And Wim himself? "No more throwing away heat but upgrading; I like the fact that Compaxo is taking the lead in this. That also creates awareness among other companies."

www.compaxo.nl
www.lti-bv.nl

In the photo: From left to right: Joost van Moolenbroek Martin Boer and Wim Littel. © Roel Dijkstra