TOMRA Sorting Food’s continuing worldwide growth has resulted in the opening of two brand new facilities and major investments being made at sites in three other countries.
The company’s 50-plus team based at its facility in West Sacramento, California, has relocated to a new purpose-built site over 30% larger than its previous building. The move occurs just a month after the similarly-sized workforce in Dublin, Ireland, transferred to accommodation more than three times the size of its former premises.
In addition, a significant extension has been completed at TOMRA Sorting Food’s global headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, while the company has invested significantly in sites in India and China.
TOMRA Sorting Food is a leading provider of sensor-based sorting and processing systems for the fresh and processed food industries. The company has been developing state-of-the-art technologies, optimising customer production flows and helping to deliver consistent, high-quality produce for more than 30 years.
The West Sacramento-based team moved 6.5km from its previous 4,200m² in Seaport Boulevard to 5,600m² offices in Embarcadero Drive. The relocated employees include experts in sales, application engineering, aftermarket services, finance and administration.
TOMRA’s US team had been based in West Sacramento, which has been labelled "the Silicon Valley of food", for about 15 years and in California for more than 30. TOMRA Sorting Food’s new West Sacramento facility and site in Denver, Colorado, provide comprehensive customer support and manufacturing capabilities for the Americas.
Ashley Hunter, senior vice-president and head of TOMRA Sorting Food, said: "With extra space and better facilities, including test, demonstration and development areas, the new West Sacramento site will enable our US team to concentrate on developing solutions for the food industry in the region. The new premises will enable them to better serve their growing customer base in terms of sales and service."
The Dublin workforce moved 2km within the award-winning Citywest business campus, from a 767m² site in Orchard Avenue to 2,410m² premises in Kingswood Avenue. The team includes specialists in research and development, sales support engineering, as well as market and product management.
In Belgium, 80 of TOMRA Sorting Food’s 190 employees at its global headquarters now occupy a 1,600m² extension to the previous 12,900m² site.
Developments in Asia have included TOMRA Sorting Food opening new sales and service offices in India, where six employees are based, for the growing market in that country. In China, it has also invested substantially at existing facilities in Xiamen, producing upgraded offices, stores, as well as service, test and demonstration areas.
The company is also setting up multiple service hubs in territories throughout China, where it has significant customer bases. These Chinese and Indian premises complement TOMRA Sorting Food’s other Asian sites in Japan and South Korea.
Summarising the reasons for the upgraded and new premises, Hunter said: "In all cases, they’ve been triggered by our current and planned expansion. In the US, for example, our total revenue increase has averaged almost 40% per annum in recent years.
"Growth such as this means we’re supporting an ever-increasing number of customers and constantly hiring high-quality new people, so the moves have not only relieved previous overcrowding but provided necessary room for future expansion. TOMRA strongly believes in investing in facilities and personnel, to better support our customers locally, and these investments are a reflection of this strategy."
In West Sacramento and Dublin, the new sites include state-of-the-art sorting solutions centres, where customers can see live demonstrations of TOMRA’s sorting, peeling and process analytics systems, in addition to trialling their own solutions.
Explaining the thinking behind these facilities, Mr Hunter said: "We encourage food producers and processors to share their needs with us, so we can suggest customised solutions, directly meeting their unique requirements, from our large range of product and technology offerings.
"The sorting solutions centres provide the ultimate experience and peace-of-mind for customers, who can stage trials using their own produce, and reflect the fact that their needs are becoming ever-more complex. The centres will also enable us to capitalise fully on our significant investment in research and development."
Hunter added that the incorporation of a cold room in the test and demonstration area in West Sacramento would allow easy testing of individually quick frozen products by TOMRA’s new Blizzard sorter, which was designed specifically for this application. He added that the sorting solutions centre also contains a laboratory, where tests for aflatoxins can be conducted as they can be identified by the company’s technology.
He said the California facility was ideally placed to support the nut processing industry and, as an example, will allow TOMRA to locally demonstrate the biometric signature identification (BSI) technology, which offers many advantages to this sector .
"In addition, the West Sacramento and Dublin sites provide facilities including much improved, modern offices and more meeting and training rooms for employee and customer needs, including spacious breakout areas for teams to collaborate and brainstorm," Hunter said.
TOMRA Sorting Solutions creates sensor-based technologies for sorting, peeling and process analytics and unites four brands under one roof: TITECH for recycling, TOMRA Sorting Mining for mining, ODENBERG for food and BEST for food and raw materials. This powerful alliance makes the company one of the world’s most advanced providers of sensor-based sorting solutions.
The alliance provides many benefits and synergies including 15 test and demo centres worldwide, access to a vast array of technologies and a large research and development department. TOMRA Sorting Solutions’ global reach also allows it to deliver an enhanced service offering, with a shared service network ensuring the company is always close to its customers. For more information please contact TOMRA.
