Biltong snack fresher for longer

Isle of Wight Biltong, producers of an additive-free biltong snack, has expanded its retail sales in the UK and Europe and doubled its turnover after implementing KernPack’s vertical form fill and seal packing equipment.

The machine has increased production by 600% and improved shelf-life from three months to a year, thus enabling Isle of Wight Biltong to meet increased demand. The snack is on sale in five Co-operative stores in the UK and in three independent stores in Germany, Slovakia and The Netherlands.

“Our growth has been made possible by the KernPack equipment which has revolutionised the company’s manufacturing process,” explains Sarah Greeff, owner of IOW Biltong. “Vast improvements in both packing speed and seal quality have opened new retail avenues which simply weren’t there before and have led to a doubling in turnover. Shelf-life has increased from three months to one year, so supermarkets and retailers in both the UK and Europe are now interested. We remain, on the whole, a ‘two-man-band’ but can now produce 22 packets a minute, up from two when we started out, so fulfilling larger and regular orders is now possible.”

The Kern machine can package 150kg of product in under four hours, compared to just 50kg in eight hours as it was previously. Then the Kern gas flush system expels all oxygen from the packet and inserts an inert gas before sealing the bag, allowing the preservative-free product to remain fresh for up to a year.

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