200 bread rolls a minute are now rolling off the production line at Panificio Italiano thanks to the company’s latest innovations.
“Maintaining high quality and ensuring consistency of our products is at the heart of our bakery business. The expansion of production at scale whilst keeping to our principles is now possible, thanks to working with EPP,” said Piero Scacco, owner of Panificio Italiano.
Panificio provides bespoke bakery products to suit customer specifications, with a strength in sub-rolls and rolls. It has invested heavily into its bakery to ensure it can deliver a prompt, reliable and efficient service to its customers. The Koenig Industrie Rex, purchased five years ago, allows Panificio Italiano to follow recipes exactly and deliver precise dough weights thanks to its dividing unit.
The bakery has been setup to produce a variety of products, and, for example, bakes 12,000 sub rolls an hour, which can be frozen or distributed at ambient temperature. The sub roll process is carefully managed, beginning with mixing in a temperature-controlled room. Dough is fed to the Industrie Rex II’s integrated hopper for pre portioning into chunks. The dough is carefully divided by the machine into exact piece weight and then rounded. After proving, the rolls are topped with seeds, scored, baked and cooled before freezing or packaging.
PanificioItaliano has hailed the success to the automated processes put into the bakery. The Koenig Industrie Rex II, supplied by EPP, provides efficient automatic dough dividing and rounding at the £20 million bakery. The purpose-built Buckinghamshire bakery is equipped with the latest technologies to meet the requirements of today’s customers, and harnesses the Koenig technology for precise, gentle dough dividing and rounding at speed and scale. The bakery can produce hundreds of thousands of products per day – from traditional recipes to new speciality breads – with its products used by a host of large retailers, as well as food services and major airlines.
“We have huge respect for Koenig and UK suppliers EPP, they continue to deliver product innovation, and never standstill, which is what you need to be successful in this industry,” adds Piero. “I have been working with Koenig for more than 40 years, and I think they are the most progressive company for bread rolls. The automation allows us to create consistent, high-quality products at a scale not otherwise possible. The Industrie Rex is reliable, accurate and delivers efficient repeat performance. It is also equally important that we enjoy a good working relationship with our supplier, EPP, to help maintain and stay ahead with our investments.”
“The Industrie Rex II is ideal for long runs where we look to maximise efficiency throughout the process,” adds Adam Thompson, managing director, Panificio Italiano. “We can produce several lines within a day, running from 5am to 6pm.”
Founder and well-known Sicilian artisan baker, Piero Scacco adds, “We are always seeking to keep ahead of the game, whether that be by adapting to produce new and exciting products for customers, or fine-tuning our processes to ensure high standards are maintained. We are always asking ‘what’s the future?’ and ‘how can we bring innovation to the market?’, which drives us forward.”
“We’re delighted that Panificio is pleased with its Koenig Industrie Rex II, it is a fantastic machine delivering excellent return on investment for bakeries looking to automation to produce at scale,” says Steve Merritt, EPP managing director. “Panificio is a great example of a bakery thriving by using automation effectively to produce outstanding products for customers in the UK and Ireland. We have an excellent longstanding working relationship with them which we enjoy, and look forward to continuing this into the future.” EPP is the exclusive distributor for Koenig in the UK and Ireland.