GEA enters the bakery sector after acquiring COMAS in Italy in June 2015.
Bakery is a new sector for GEA, broadening and strengthening its position in the food industry and adding a totally new set of equipment to the GEA product portfolio.
COMAS supplies bakery technology and is now integrated into the ‘Solutions’ Business Area of GEA.
COMAS has been in the bakery sector since 1972 and supplies equipment and complete production lines for cakes, pies, cookies, layer cakes, pastry, pizza and bread.
GEA now has the Bakery Experience Center (BEC) in Torrebelvicino, Italy.
This facility performs daily testing of new recipes on behalf of customers and allows processes to be optimized for throughput and quality.
The BEC includes bakery production equipment such as mixers, depositors, filling machines, pizza topping machines, ovens and packaging equipment.
It is also used for product development and to test all machines leaving the factory prior to delivery.
“The BEC is very popular with our customers,” said Andrea Filippi, marketing manager COMAS.
“It allows us to prove the quality and efficiency of our production lines for customers and enables them to develop new products and bring them to market quickly.”
“Recently we have helped a baker to develop a new cake production line to boost throughput while maintaining, or even improving product quality.”
“Similarly, a confectionery customer, who wanted to diversify into bakery products, was able to test ingredients, recipes and production processing at the BEC before investing in new plant.”
