Shipping out £1.4m order to Thailand

by - 04/10/2010

"A Lowestoft-based company is putting the finishing touches to a £1.4m project to supply bespoke freezers for a new food processing factory in Thailand."

Engineers at Starfrost, which designs and manufactures freezing and chilling systems, have spent four months designing the five huge spiral quick-freezing systems and the components are being shipped to Asia so that the machinery can be installed in time for the new year.

The shipping containers are being packed and prepared at the firm's site in Newcombe Road, Lowestoft, and once the parts arrive in Thailand, about 20 people, including staff from Starfrost, will spend more than a month putting the machines together.

Once they are running at full capacity, each of the five huge freezers will be able to process 2,000kg of cooked chicken per hour continuously for Golden Foods Siam, which is based just outside Bangkok.

Managing director Neil Winney said: “It is great for us as a fairly small firm to be mixing it with large, global competitors on such a large project.

“The order is worth just under £1.4m, so as well as generating work for us, we have contracts with other local companies so they also benefit. The order was contested between us and several other UK and overseas companies, so we were very pleased to secure it in Lowestoft.”

As well as preparing 19 40ft-high cube containers for shipment to Thailand, Starfrost will also be receiving and transferring other parts for the project over the coming weeks, including 66 crates of conveyor belt from the USA, five container loads of cooling systems from Germany and four containers of insulated panels from Holland.

The freezers have been designed in-house under project manager Jason Miles and are the latest machines to be shipped overseas by Starfrost, which has agents covering every continent and has worked with food manufacturers in more than 50 countries.

Mr Winney said: “We've just taken orders for machines for Chile and another for South Africa, as well as contracts closer to home in Northern Ireland and in the UK.

“The frozen food industry is experiencing an upturn at the moment, partly because of the recession changing people's shopping and eating habits and the recognition that it is an economical way to produce and ship food products.”

The company, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, employs 25 staff between Lowestoft and its overseas offices.

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