Food & Beverage Reporter August 2018

INNOVATION
BM FOODS GOES GREEN
WITH CO2 COOLING
In a move that marks a first in South
Africa and which will dramatically
reduce its carbon footprint, BM Foods,
manufacturers of Mediterranean
Delicacies, has opted for
environmentally-friendly natural
gas to keep its food cool.
By switching to CO2-driven
refrigeration, the Cape Town
factory reduces any negative
impact on the environment. This
is in line with the Global Warming
Potential (GWP) measure that
allows analysts to calculate
emissions from different gases.
The GWP uses a score-type
system to define what damages
the environment and the lower
the score, the better. In this case,
CO2 has a score of 1 – compared
to traditional refrigeration gases, which
currently have a GWP score of 4922.
Richard Drinkrow, MD of Mainstream
Refrigeration, which supplied the
refrigeration system, advises that CO2 is
a natural gas that is recovered from the
atmosphere and if there are any leaks,
this simply returns to the atmosphere
where it belongs. “CO2 was the original
gas used in the 1930s, which was
Rooftop view of BM Foods’ factory showing the
refrigeration system that uses carbon dioxide.
ousted for more modern gases, but the
damage caused by traditional gases and
other pollutants to the ozone layer and
beyond, has resulted in increased global
pressure to protect the environment.”
According to Drinkrow, reverting
to CO2 in refrigeration systems will
assist in making small yet impactful
improvements to our environment
and for manufacturers like BM Foods,
returning to natural gases as a
means of refrigeration is taking
a step forward for the food
manufacturing industry.
BM Foods CEO, Costas
Vayanos, is more than satisfied
with this innovation as it has
cost-saving advantages. “We are
now using 100% environmentallyfriendly
gas, and as an added
benefit we get free heating for all
of our hot water requirements in
the factory via a heat exchanger.”
The factory no longer
needs electrically-heated hot
water cylinders in the facility, and
combined with its 30% solar power
solution, BM’s carbon footprint has
reduced significantly. “We are highly
motivated to be the South African leader
in environmentally-friendly practices
within the food manufacturing industry,”
says Vayanos.
www.bmfoods.co.za
ID Logistics beefs up tech solutions
ID Logistics South Africa has upped its
game by adopting new technology to
add value to its large FMCG and retail
clients by installing a centralized control
tower at its head office in Boksburg.
Adrien Faye, National Transport
Planning & Execution Tracking Manager
at ID Logistics SA, has been responsible
for rolling out and supporting similar
projects for the global group in France,
Belgium and China. “We started the
planning for the Centralised Control
Tower in South Africa in July 2017 and
by January this year we had established
our centralised transport planning
department at our head office.”
According to Faye, the major
benefits of a centralised facility is
visibility of the clients’ orders through
its entire journey from collection to
delivery, as well real-time track and trace
capabilities, and effective monitoring of
the drivers and vehicles. “This managed
transport service means that we can
orchestrate operations, and receive
real-time analysis which can result in
enhancements and cost savings. In
addition, communication between all
parties, including clients, has improved,”
says Faye.
During 2017, the company implemented
ZENO mobile software, an
online scheduler for same and next day
planning of vehicles and deliveries, with
built-in workflow management. “This
helps to manage both the planning and
execution with real-time events through
the use of alerts, automatic adjustment
of existing schedules following events.
It integrates with the handheld mobile
devices and backend financial system,
which enables our mobile workforce to
receive alerts, downloadable schedules,
signatures-on-line, as well as a lot more
functionality.”
Hand-in-hand with ZENO, is the
company’s optimisation programme,
based on PLATO, which is a suite of
enterprise-level planning software
modules that provides transport
management, route optimisation and
resource utilisation.
www.id-logistics.com/za/southafrica/
32 AUGUST 2018 | FOOD & BEVERAGE REPORTER www.fbreporter.co.za