Technology alone can only ever be part of a solution – it also requires the knowledge to use it efficiently and profitably. This is precisely why Rademaker has installed the RTC at its headquarters and production site in Culemborg, the Netherlands. The Technology Center not only offers space for the company’s own research and development, but, above all, for that of its customers, the bakeries.
By Helga Baumfalk
The Rademaker Technology Center (RTC) covers an impressive space, spanning 2,400 square meters. Culemborg is home to all types of equipment and systems needed to produce pastries, croissants, Mediterranean products such as ciabatta, pinsa, breads and flatbreads, and pizza. These are complete production lines of the latest generation that, in one form or another, can be found in bakeries around the world.
“Our customers primarily use the RTC as a quiet, discreet space for testing and product development, away from their own production,” explains Paul Groenewegen, Managing Director of Rademaker Germany. “We also use the Technology Center to advance our own R&D, produce product samples for our customers, train employees, or demonstrate the possible applications of our systems to bakers.”
The RTC is very busy with customers who come to test products or processes on a Rademaker production line, or for product development. Rademaker is preparing for these test runs thoroughly. “We develop entire concepts with the bakeries during the project planning phase. Of course, they want to know whether adding current or future specialties into production will actually work. Up to five product concepts can usually be tested in the Technology Center in one day,” says Björn Buschhorn, Sales, Rademaker Germany.
small – on data and facts. You can’t rely on gut feeling.”
Paul Groenewegen, Managing Director, Rademaker Germany
Customers come to the RTC from all over the world: from Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the Middle East, as well as from Western and Eastern Europe, South America and the USA. Bakers from North America no longer have to make the long journey to the Netherlands if they want to carry out tests on the semi-industrial Radini lines, as since June 2024, they can visit the new Experience Center in Chicago.
Engineering does not rely on gut feeling
Large bakeries use the RTC in Culemborg, as do chain stores. “They come to us with different requirements and expectations,” observes Buschhorn. “Customers from the trade sector need more input. Here, it is often a matter of converting existing, partly manual processes into automated processes.” Close support and coordination are important here. “You have to explain more and ask more questions. We dig deep. That takes some getting used to.” For companies in the trade sector, the processes often operate as they are, he adds, without ever being defined or questioned.
The situation is different with industrial customers. Paul Groenewegen explains: “In the industrial sector, there are clearly defined Decision Making Units (DMU). There is a product developer, a production manager, the person responsible for quality assurance, a project manager, the plant manager, and so on. And all of these departments have a lot of data at their disposal. Everything is defined.”
The situation is different in large craft businesses. These are usually family-run companies where one person, the owner, is responsible for many of these tasks, perhaps in collaboration with the production manager or a machine operator. These companies produce a wide range of products, but often don’t know the exact details of their production. “As a machine manufacturer, however, you have to base the design of a system – whether large or small – on data and facts. Going with a gut feeling doesn’t work. That is why we ask a lot of questions.”
Less rework dough, more weight accuracy, but, above all…
And what special requirements do industrial customers have? “Less rework dough, more weight accuracy,” lists Groenewegen; but these issues are not new. He notes something else: “We notice that market demands from our customers’ customers – i.e., the retail sector – are continually increasing.” Bakeries are expected to be incredibly flexible in terms of their product range and quick to implement new ideas. Groenewegen: “Developing a new product at R&D level is not difficult. The challenge lies in bringing the concept to an automation scale in the shortest possible time. Bakeries often approach us with this task.” Rademaker has to keep up here: “We’re in the same boat as our customers.”
US-based Rademaker Experience Center
The Rademaker Experience Center (REC) was launched in the USA, Chicago/Illinois in mid-June, 2024, and is equipped with a Radini laminator with a universal pastry line and a Radini donut line. A Radini bread line is planned for installation in 2025.
Bakeries are constantly on the lookout for something new, something that is unique, something that sets them apart from the competition (for as long as possible). Some developments that started at the RTC are now known on the market, such as the bicolored croissant, for example. “We developed the product for an internal presentation,” explains the Managing Director. “At some point, a major customer took up the concept and after a few months, the croissant was already on sale in stores and gas stations. One idea that also came from us is a bread roll with a special, folded shape and different trimming on the top and bottom. This item is a big hit today.”
Cooperation with the Dutch Boulangerie Team
The wealth of ideas is no coincidence. The 15 technologists and master bakers who work at Rademaker take on tasks in bakeries in all corners of the world. “In addition,” Groenewegen emphasizes, “we cooperate with the Dutch Boulangerie Team.” It may well be that this team is made up of some of the best bakers in the Netherlands; they are certainly experts with clever ideas. Rademaker benefits from their suggestions and the Dutch Boulangerie Team, in turn, benefits from the machine manufacturer’s sponsorship and process engineering expertise.
Groenewegen describes the connection to some raw material suppliers as very good. They, too, have occasionally tested the machinability of their doughs at the RTC, provided there was actually capacity available. Even dairies have come to the company to test how the butter they offer behaves when used on the fat pump. Speaking of butter: the Managing Director has noticed that, “Many medium-
sized craft businesses are switching to butter. Until now, artisan businesses have preferred to use margarine to produce laminated doughs, while the industry almost
exclusively uses butter.”
Guests at the RTC: The Rademaker team with Björn Buschhorn (left), Nancy den Dunnen (second from left), Paul Groenewegen (second from right) and Jan Willem Jansen (right) with Helga Baumfalk (f2m)
“We want to be well prepared”
Customers work with their own raw materials in the Technology Center, which are usually delivered two weeks before the actual deadline, “So that they can acclimatize,” explains Björn Buschhorn. “It’s also good if our colleagues at the RTC can run trial runs with the customer’s ingredients in advance. Every raw material behaves differently. We want to adapt to this and be well prepared. On the actual test day, it should only be about the end product.”
About the Rademaker Technology Center (RTC) and the Academy in Culemborg/Netherlands
The Technology Center spanning more than 2,400 square meters is used for:
+ Demonstrations and product tests
+ Product development
+ Training for operators and Rademaker employees
The equipment lineup:
+ Two Rademaker lines for pastries, croissants and breads
+ A Radini laminator in combination with a pastry line and croissant module
+ A Radini bread/roll line
+ A cooling and proofing cabinet, integrated into the laminating system
+ Mixers with different technologies (e.g. spiral mixers)
+ Ovens with different technologies (e.g. stone slab conveyor ovens for pizza)
+ Fermentation rooms from various manufacturers
+ Blast chillers and freezer rooms
Machines and systems are available for the production of:
+ Pastries
+ Croissants
+ Mediterranean breads
+ Bread and rolls (up to TA 185)
+ Pizza
A team of 15 bakers and dough technologists work in the Technology Centre under the leadership of Teun Zweers, responsible for bread, pizza and related products; Richard van Dooren, responsible for laminated dough, pastries and croissants; and Wiep Bergsma, Manager RTC.
The Academy
Equipment: Training rooms, training bakery and a virtual reality studio (VR studio). The VR studio can be used to carry out operator training with a virtual twin of the systems in the RTC.
Size: 320 sqm
Training is provided: Operators and maintenance personnel from the baking industry, with every Rademaker employee also undergoing a training program and receiving a certificate upon completion.
Group size: Up to a maximum of eight participants per course
The training program: It is divided into basic training courses with a focus on line operation and advanced training courses with the aim of improving line efficiency.
In addition to classroom training at the Academy, the company also conducts online training courses and training courses directly at the customer’s premises.
There are various reasons why bakeries visit the RTC: “Most companies want to further automate the production of a particular product,” explains Groenewegen. “Most of these companies are semi-automated and want more automation because they don’t have the staff. Others are planning to invest in new process technology or launch a new development on the market. And there are others who come to us because they have a ‘cash cow’, a product that is performing really well, but have outdated systems on which it is produced. Here, the product does not need to be changed at all. For us as machine manufacturer, it is no easy task to copy an existing product and transfer it 1:1 to new technology. For such requests, we visit the customer, analyze the processes, discuss them within the team, and conduct multiple tests in the RTC to achieve the goal.”
Automation with a manual touch works
According to Rademaker, consistency in product quality often plays an important role in the decision for more automation. In the company’s experience, the industry wants to automate the manufacture of products that have a handcrafted touch, while medium-sized companies want to retain the handcrafted character of their products while at the same time increasing automation. According to Buschhorn, the curved croissant proves that both can be reconciled. “Artisan businesses can produce coiled croissants by machine, remove them by hand and bend them. This saves working time while retaining the individual, artisan character of the product.”
Björn Buschhorn, Sales, Rademaker Germany
In the Academy – tailor-made training
In addition to the Technology Center, Rademaker operates an Academy in Culemborg, which is used for training its own staff, but primarily for training customers’ employees. Rademaker offers further training programs for a good reason. “A shortage of skilled workers is an issue for bakeries worldwide,” emphasizes Groenewegen. “Many companies are finding it difficult to retain employees, which has become even more acute since the COVID pandemic. In this respect, it makes sense to provide the people they employ with good training in the use of technology.” The Academy is, as he says, a success story.
Customer employees are coming over almost every week for training purposes. There are no standard, ‘copy/paste’ programs: “Our team prepares for each group individually, because each company receives its own unique system, which also means that we have to adapt the content of the training and the training material individually, in the language of the customer,” Groenewegen explains.
The Academy offers training in three languages: Dutch, English and German. Other national languages are translated by an interpreter. The Rademaker Academy employees are trained in teaching and have long been experienced in responding to the level of knowledge of their ‘students’ and their different mentalities. Skills like these are not insignificant for a globally active company like Rademaker, which exports its machines and systems worldwide.
