• SLICE
  • PORTION SLICING
    Chilled product
  • HIGH-SPEED SLICING Bacon Product
  • HIGH-SPEED SLICING Cooked Meats/Cheese
  • INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
• PORTION
  • SLICING
    Chilled product
  • INTELLIGENT PORTION LOADING ROBOT
  • SAWING
    Frozen Product
  • BANDSAWS
  • INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
• WEIGH
  • CHECK WEIGHING
  • WEIGH PRICE LABELLING
  • INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
• GRADE
  • GRADING
  • CONVERGING & DIVERGING
  • INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
• LOAD
  • INTELLIGENT PORTION LOADING ROBOT
  • INTELLIGENT PORTION LOADING BATCHER
  • INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
• SEAL
  • SEALING
  • SLEEVING
  • WRAPPING
  • INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
• LABEL
  • LABELLING
  • WEIGH PRICE LABELLING
  • INTEGRATED SYSTEMS
• SYSTEMS
  • View typical Integrated Systems configurations

LONG STANDING QUALITY

From day one of its foundation in the 1950’s Direct Table Produce Co. has adhered to the well-proven principle of providing high quality bacon products.

Their food service customers include some of the very best London hotels, whose discerning guests expect nothing but the very best. But this premium quality is not confined to the world’s rich and famous, because, thankfully, Direct Table’s products are also sold by the UK’s top retailers and supermarkets to equally discerning consumers.
The company has two UK plants, Cuffley in Hertfordshire, which processes and slices bacon for retailers, and Lark Valley Foods at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, where bacon products are cured in their own unique, traditional way under the Suffolk Crown brand.

Presentation and production efficiency are, of course, just as important as product quality and the company’s reputation for satisfying their customer’s demands relies heavily on an impressive array of AEW.THURNE machinery at both plants. At Cuffley, 5 IBS 2000 Predictive Slicer lines work constantly and reliably to produce sliced bacon in bulk packs and stacks of 6, 8 and 10 slices for MAP and vacuum consumer packs.

The most recent of the AEW.THURNE IBS 2000 Predictive Slicers features automatic loading, a G2200 checkweigher and a consumer buffer conveyor system. These ensure that constantly high volumes of well presented, fixed weight packs are delivered at high speed in a synchronised
format to the packing machine.

Direct Table’s Managing Director, Tony Stanton, is pleased with his latest acquisition from AEW.THURNE. “High yields and superb presentation are absolutely critical to our success. Speed, too, is all important because we have to respond to orders at very short notice. The IBS 2000 fulfils all these functions with ease,” he said.

Building on success

At Bury St. Edmunds, 2 very busy AEW.THURNE IBS 2000 Predictive Slicer lines help Direct Table to meet the growing demand for Suffolk Crown bacon. The range of Suffolk Crown products is being expanded to include gammon joints and steaks, which will be produced with the aid of AEW.THURNE’s SmartSlice Vision and APC Slicers. The machines complement the state-of-the-art production facility which has been doubled in size to cope with the greatly increased volumes.

With its high output, impressive accuracy and smartweight cutting patterns that allow a choice of portion weights and thicknesses, AEW.THURNE’s SmartSlice Vision is ideally suited to the role of slicing fixed weight gammon and bacon joints with a ‘hand cut’ finish.

The gammon steaks will be cut on the AEW.THURNE APC Slicer linked to a G2200 checkweigher and conveyor system to provide high volumes of perfectly cut, fixed weight portions ready for packing.

Quality is undoubtedly the main reason for Direct Table’s longstanding and richly deserved success and the onus is on Tony Stanton and his colleagues to ensure it continues. Investing in the right kind of production technology too, has been a major factor.

In recognising the contribution made by AEW.THURNE, Tony said, “I think they are no.1. For more than 20 years they’ve been doing a fantastic job for us and I have no doubt it will continue.”