Fortisa AG
Fortisa AG, Zuchwil/Switzerland, produces burger buns, hot dog buns and sandwich breads that are offered as fresh goods or frozen products. The company has produced the entire bun portfolio for McDonald’s Switzerland for more than 30 years. Other customers include the retail trade, branded article producers, the sandwich industry and food service distributors. The company operates a six-day week around the clock. According to the company’s web site, the proportion exported is 20%. Fortisa is privately-owned, and maintains a partnership with Grupo Bimbo, the world’s biggest bakery group.
Fortisa’s head office in Zuchwil/Switzerland
Fortisa AG is the market leader in Switzerland for buns and small breads for the convenience
segment. During the company’s development, together with FactoryXperts, the management developed various expansion options, and finally decided in favor of extending and redeveloping the existing location in Zuchwil.
In an in-depth operating concept, FactoryXperts planned a complete modernization of the production lines. In the past five years, all the plant components were replaced, enlarged or improved. Project implementation, including all the building activities, took place in parallel with ongoing production, and was achievable without interrupting production for a single day, thanks to meticulous planning.
A completely new internal production flow was designed for the operation. This involved inserting an intermediate floor into the ground floor of the existing building to create space for a new, fully automatic reusable containers handling robot for McDonald’s trays. The operation was also expanded by adding cooling spirals and a packing line (for pillow-packs) on the ground floor, and two tubular bag packing lines (flowpacks) for frozen baked products on the intermediate floor.
In the new production flow, burger buns are now taken from the basement floor (existing production lines), via the newly-installed cooling spirals, for packing either on the intermediate floor or on the ground floor. Thus the buns, produced under hygienic conditions, can be fully automatically cooled and conveyed to the packing lines by means of cooling spirals. After packing, the buns packed in bags are automatically placed in distribution containers. A shock-freezer was installed as an additional option, allowing the packaged products to be frozen for delivery as frozen products. The entire new process comprises goods reception for the containers, the crate washing plant, and storage and transport of the newly-
filled containers for outgoing delivery to customers. A consistent hygiene zones concept completes the new procedure. Since the work took place during ongoing operations, implementation of the project was carried out stepwise during two years. Commissioning was achieved on schedule in the fall of 2019.
Cooling spirals
The tray washing line
Packing buns in pillow-packs
Tray storage
