Enzyme player grows encapsulation capacity and speed
Vice president of sales, Tod Burgess, wouldn’t reveal the size of the investment but said it had become necessary to keep pace with the size of the company’s orders and give it the spare capacity to deal with future growth.
“The new machinery will give us the ability to provide better service with quicker turnaround and greater flexibility,” Burgess told NutraIngredients-USA.com. “It’s been fully audited and means we are now fully automated with the capacity to keep growing the business.”
Changes at the facility include:
• Improved bulk blending capabilities for both large and small batch sizes
• High speed encapsulation capabilities, along with a broader spectrum of
capsule sizes
• New tableting line to broaden manufacturing capabilities
• Automated bottling and labeling capacity
Automated inspection equipment is due to come online at the 19-year-old company in early 2009.
Some staff had been “reallocated” but none had been laid off despite the automation that had occurred, he said. The upgraded facilities and processes are fully GMP compliant as well as being non-GMO and kosher where applicable.
Economic situation
Burgess said the enzyme industry was yet to feel the impact of the retarded economic situation and may be offered some protection because of the niche nature of the enzyme supplements market.
The fact Deerland offered a full turnkey service that included formulation advice would assist the company, which is one of the bigger US enzyme players, in meeting its growth targets.
In a statement chief executive officer, Scott Ravech, said: “Deerland must evolve as our industry evolves .In doing so, it is vital that we continually invest in our business to meet or exceed the expectations of the customers who entrust us with their business.
“Deerland has recognized this and to support these needs we invested in additional manufacturing capabilities, which will help us be able to better partner with our customers from concept through to commercialization. This will be offered across the value chain to include product/formulation design, development and finished product.”
Deerland specializes in plant, animal, fungal and bacterial-sourced enzymes and bulk single powders or blends, liquids, hard shell capsules and tablets as well as bottling and labeling.
