Space-saving packaging for salad out of the vending machine

Kronen Spinach 1

Efficient processing for the greatest possible freshness

Since 2016, Lisa Zapf, managing director of Zalat-o-mat GmbH located in the south of Germany, has been running a steadily growing number of vending machines, called Zalat-o-maten, in which fresh regional products such as vegetables and lettuce from the company's own farm are sold. The increasing production volumes made it necessary to purchase a KRONEN salad spin-dryer and a packaging solution in order to meet the growing demand.

By now at 11 locations, customers can purchase various fresh products from the machines around the clock, e.g. seasonal vegetables, ready-to-eat salads and juices as well as food from cooperating regional suppliers. In order to be able to stock the vending machines with sufficient quantities of freshly harvested, washed and packaged lettuce, Lisa Zapf was looking for a solution to efficiently process the salad from her own cultivation, which would allow the shortest possible time between harvest and sale. The family business has already been using a GEWA washing machine since 12 years to wash various products and especially the various salads. Since August a KS-7 PLUS salad and vegetable spin-dryer and a KWT 16 weighing table and platform with single-head scale, which is combined with a CP 350 PLUS packaging machine, supplement the washing machine.

Before making the purchase decision, Lisa Zapf did intensive research on the packaging machines available on the market, which had to meet two criteria in particular: a small to medium processing capacity is sufficient for the family business. And particularly important is the production of the most space-saving package sizes for salad of 100g, 300g and 500g, since the limited sales area inside the vending machines should be used optimally.

At Fruit Logistica in February 2020, she found what she was looking for at the KRONEN booth and together with Heiko Schönbroich, KRONEN Sales Manager for Southern Germany, the packaging solution was adapted to the specific requirements of space-saving packaging. By purchasing the salad spin-dryer and packaging solution, the processing was optimized so that the approx. 300 kg of lettuce can now be processed efficiently and the promise of freshness can be kept even with increasing sales volumes. In addition, the solution is flexible and can be used for different products such as lettuce, leaf lettuce, spinach or rocket, as well as other vegetables and also other pack sizes for sale to resellers can be produced thanks to the flexible adaptation.

The Zalat-o-mats are replenished daily with the fresh products as required, whereby the goods remain in the machine for a maximum of 3 days. As an option for contactless shopping for fresh regional products, they are very popular with customers in the region and their attractiveness has increased further in times of Corona. With the KRONEN machines, the family business is now equipped for the thorough and fast processing of the salad products and well prepared for the commissioning of further vending machines.