More uptime and less costs at Sea Fresh Retail

It's like the Champions League, delivering to retail. After all: flexibility and speed are crucial. In order to optimise the availability of the machines, Sea Fresh Retail concluded a maintenance contract. And that works.

Half an hour of salmon with garden herbs, then three quarters of an hour of prawns and then an hour of cod fillets in oven dishes; such a varied programme is business as usual for Sea Fresh Retail. "We run as many as fifty different types of batches every day," says Albert Ras, Commercial Director Retail at the company. In 1999 his father and two uncles started a fish wholesale business, initially focusing on North Sea fish. In 2010 Ras, who had just completed his studies in Commercial Economics, was allowed to set up the retail branch for the company. Nowadays Sea Fresh Retail supplies some twenty to twenty-five million items of packaged fish to retailers in the Netherlands and surrounding countries annually. The fish is filleted, portioned, weighed and packaged at the company. Today it is not just fish from the North Sea: various types of fish from Europe, Africa and Asia, among others, are processed at the company. Ras: "Apart from the bestsellers - salmon fillet, cod fillet and tuna - we offer special products: fish roll-up, fish for the barbecue and convenience products such as meals like pasta pesto with pieces of salmon in oven dishes. At Christmas we will have fish gourmet dishes and cod fillet with lobster sauce, samphire and prawns. We are constantly innovating in terms of our product range, which is how we distinguish ourselves on the market."  

From left to right Teunis Hakvoort (TD Sea Fresh), Berry van der Burgt, Jurian van Veen (TD Sea Fresh)

Hundreds of fishermen 

Apart from responding to convenience, the fish processor also responds to another major development: sustainability. Ras: "In 2008 we started a project on the Philippines in collaboration with the WWF to make the catch of yellowfin tuna more sustainable. A long process because, unlike most other fish, tuna is caught manually by hundreds of individual fishermen. So they all need to be trained in, among other things, the right fishing method. We recently received MSC certification for this fish, the internationally recognised proof of sustainable fishing. A very nice moment. Part of our tuna also comes from Sri Lanka, where we have set up our own factory for processing. There, too, we participate in a sustainability course." 

Retailers in particular set high standards when it comes to sustainability, Ras explains: "Without MSC or ASC certification, the fish doesn't get on the shelves." Supermarkets also have high requirements in other areas: "Being able to switch quickly is crucial - what is ordered today should preferably also be delivered today in a temperature range of zero to two degrees Celsius. Quality inspections are also strict. Understandable; after all, we work with fresh products. Although we already perform at a high quality level, we try to stay ahead. That is why we recently expanded our quality team with two more people."

Fourth renovation 

The required flexibility and speed makes delivering to retail a top-class sport. "It's like the Champions League," says Ras. Extra challenging at a time when human hands are becoming increasingly scarce. That's why the decision was made to expand the factory again. It is the fourth renovation since 2010. Whereas the previous expansions were all about growth, this one was mainly driven by the desire to automate and robotise. "Our process was already largely automated, but certain actions are still carried out by people, such as putting the trays of fish on the line and placing the packages in crates or boxes. In the new situation, this is no longer necessary." 

More uptime

The expansion will include the installation of a new Espera weighing and labelling machine, the seventh from this machine supplier. Both companies have been working together since 2010. In 2019 Sea Fresh Retail concluded a maintenance contract with Espera with the aim of further increasing the availability of the machines at lower costs. Berry van der Burgt, Customer Service Manager at Espera, explains: "Our maintenance contracts are built up from modules. In consultation with our customers we make a selection from the available service modules that best suit the customer's needs. Sea Fresh Retail has chosen inspection, major maintenance and calibration. Twice a year we carry out these activities. In addition, we have trained the technical department of Sea Fresh to solve first-line faults quickly and effectively, independently or with remote support. For minor malfunctions, the technical department there now also has a standard package of spare parts at its disposal." Interventions have dropped by forty per cent both last year and this year. Ras: "Those figures speak for themselves. Since the maintenance agreement with Espera our uptime has increased and our operational costs have decreased. Exactly what we had in mind.

www.seafreshretail.nl
www.espera.nl

Photos: Ton Kastermans Fotografie