Viscofan

Last updated

Viscofan
Type Sociedad Anónima
BMAD:  VIS
ISIN ES0184262212
Industry Meat casing manufacturer
Founded1975
Headquarters Cáseda, Spain
Key people
José Domingo de Ampuero y Osma (Chairman)
José Antonio Canales (CEO)
RevenueIncrease2.svg €849.697 million (2019) [1]
Increase2.svg €130.283 million (2019) [1]
Total assets Increase2.svg €1.085 billion (2019) [1]
Total equity Increase2.svg €784.366 million (2019) [1]
Number of employees
Decrease2.svg 4,628 (2019) [1]
Website www.viscofan.com

Viscofan is a Spanish manufacturer of casings for meat products [2] (also known as artificial casings given their capacity to replace animal casings that are used in the production of cold meats), with commercial presence in over 100 countries around the world.

Contents

It is the only world producer with the capacity to manufacture the four main technologies available on the casings or artificial casings market (cellulose, collagen, fibrous and plastic).

Its complex production process is based on the physical and chemical treatment of the raw materials, which, through mechanical or physical-chemical rupture and later homogenisations and mixes, become a mass that can be extruded in the production process.

The extrusion operation is performed by pressing the mass, either through a ring (to produce a tubular casing) or through a slot (for example to produce a plastic film or collagen sheet). This way, smooth casing is produced that can later be rolled onto spools or rolls and that can undergo a series of transformation processes (this process is also called "converting"), among which particularly noteworthy is the tripe pleating (i.e. its folds) and occasionally its printing and closure; all to facilitate its storage and later distribution in the form of sticks, so that clients can use them easily in their cold meat production machinery.

The company has been trading [3] in the Madrid Stock Exchange General Index since December 1986 and is a former component of the IBEX 35.[ citation needed ]

History

Viscofan was founded in 1975, the year in which the production and commercialisation of its products began. The company's solid growth led it to taking the next natural step into starting its share trading in the Madrid Stock Exchange General Index in December 1986.

As part of its growth strategy, in 1988 Viscofan acquired the food group IAN (Industrias Alimentarias de Navarra), which enabled it to gain momentum in the industry on a national level.

Following this, the company designed an international expansion strategy which began with the acquisition of the German company Naturin GmbH&Co in 1990 and with the opening of new commercial offices in other countries.

In 1995 it acquired Gamex in the Czech Republic and Trificiel in São Paulo (Brazil). Its expansion continued, and in 2005 it acquired Koteksprodukt AD in Serbia and the assets of AB Tripasin of Sweden. A year later, in 2006, Viscofan strengthened its presence in the American market with the purchase of the American assets of Teepak (US and Mexico).

In 2008 the company executed the expansion of its co-generation plant in Spain. In the same year, Viscofan Bioengineering (VBE) [4] was constituted as a business unit that combines biosciences and engineering to supply collagen-based products which can be applied to repair damaged tissues in patients. The Viscofan Group's Bioengineering unit is located in Weinheim (Germany), a benchmark centre for the company's collagen casings, where it has an additional cleanroom to produce collagen products for medical use.

In 2009 a new milestone was reached within the company's international expansion strategy, with the creation of Viscofan Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. in China. Viscofan already distributed its products in the Asian country prior to this but it did not have its own production centre. A year later, in 2010, the first converting plant in the country was inaugurated.

Particularly outstanding in 2012 was the creation of Viscofan Uruguay S.A., converting collagen for the first time in Latin America.

In 2013, in its drive into the Asian market, the collagen extrusion plant was opened in China. A year later, in 2014, the Company opened the extrusion plant in Uruguay.

In 2015, coinciding with the celebration of its 40th anniversary, Viscofan sold the IAN Group to focus all of its efforts on the casing business, with the acquisition of Nanopack Technology & Packaging in order to give a new boost to the plastics business line. Also in 2015, the company inaugurated its new plastics plant in Mexico.

In 2016 Viscofan strengthened its positioning and improved its product offer with the acquisition of Vector USA and Vector Europe.

Production lines

Viscofan produces the four kinds of artificial casing available on the market:

International presence

Viscofan exports a large part of its products to other markets and is currently present in over 100 countries. Thanks to its internationalization strategy, it has production centres in 10 countries – Spain, Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, Serbia, China, United States, Brazil, Mexico and Uruguay – and has commercial offices in 15 countries.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mortadella</span> Large Italian (pork) sausage

Mortadella is a large Italian sausage or luncheon meat made of finely hashed or ground meat-cured pork, which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat. It is traditionally flavoured with black pepper grains, but modern versions can also contain pistachios or, more rarely, myrtle berries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sausage</span> Meat product

A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders.

Cellophane is a thin, transparent sheet made of regenerated cellulose. Its low permeability to air, oils, greases, bacteria, and liquid water makes it useful for food packaging. Cellophane is highly permeable to water vapour, but may be coated with nitrocellulose lacquer to prevent this.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salami</span> Cured sausage, fermented and air-dried meat

Salami is a cured sausage consisting of fermented and air-dried meat, typically pork. Historically, salami was popular among Southern, Eastern, and Central European peasants because it can be stored at room temperature for up to 45 days once cut, supplementing a potentially meager or inconsistent supply of fresh meat. Countries and regions across Europe make their own traditional varieties of salami.

Eastman Chemical Company is an American company primarily involved in the chemical industry. Once a subsidiary of Kodak, today it is an independent global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of advanced materials, chemicals and fibers for everyday purposes. Founded in 1920 and based in Kingsport, Tennessee, the company now has more than 50 manufacturing sites worldwide and employs approximately 14,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sausage casing</span> Material used in sausage-making

Sausage casing, also known as sausage skin or simply casing, is the material that encloses the filling of a sausage. Natural casings are made from animal intestines or skin; artificial casings, introduced in the early 20th century, are made of collagen and cellulose. The material is then shaped via a continuous extrusion process – producing a single sausage casing of indefinite length – which is then cut into desired lengths, usually while the extrusion process continues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood-plastic composite</span> Composite materials made of wood fiber and thermoplastics

Wood-plastic composites (WPCs) are composite materials made of wood fiber/wood flour and thermoplastic(s) such as polythene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), or polylactic acid (PLA).

Cellulosic ethanol is ethanol produced from cellulose rather than from the plant's seeds or fruit. It can be produced from grasses, wood, algae, or other plants. It is generally discussed for use as a biofuel. The carbon dioxide that plants absorb as they grow offsets some of the carbon dioxide emitted when ethanol made from them is burned, so cellulosic ethanol fuel has the potential to have a lower carbon footprint than fossil fuels.

Braskem is a Brazilian petrochemical company headquartered in São Paulo. The company is the largest petrochemical company in Latin America and has become a major player in the international petrochemical market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borregaard</span>

Borregaard is a Norwegian company, established in 1889 in the southeastern town of Sarpsborg in Østfold county. Its main products were traditionally pulp and paper. The company later started producing chemicals based on timber as a raw material. After a takeover in 1986, Borregaard was part of the chemical division of the Orkla Group until it was spun off and introduced to the Oslo Stock Exchange in October 2012. It had 1050 employees in 2016.

Bioplastics are plastic materials produced from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, straw, woodchips, sawdust, recycled food waste, etc. Some bioplastics are obtained by processing directly from natural biopolymers including polysaccharides and proteins, while others are chemically synthesised from sugar derivatives and lipids from either plants or animals, or biologically generated by fermentation of sugars or lipids. In contrast, common plastics, such as fossil-fuel plastics are derived from petroleum or natural gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charcuterie</span> Branch of cooking of prepared meat products, primarily from pork

Charcuterie is a French term for a branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, ballotines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capsule (pharmacy)</span> Relatively stable shell containing medicine

In the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, encapsulation refers to a range of dosage forms—techniques used to enclose medicines—in a relatively stable shell known as a capsule, allowing them to, for example, be taken orally or be used as suppositories. The two main types of capsules are:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bioeconomy</span> Economic activity focused on biotechnology

Biobased economy, bioeconomy or biotechonomy is economic activity involving the use of biotechnology and biomass in the production of goods, services, or energy. The terms are widely used by regional development agencies, national and international organizations, and biotechnology companies. They are closely linked to the evolution of the biotechnology industry and the capacity to study, understand, and manipulate genetic material that has been possible due to scientific research and technological development. This includes the application of scientific and technological developments to agriculture, health, chemical, and energy industries.

Borealis AG is an Austrian chemical company and is the world's eighth largest producer of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.

Agricultural waste are plant residues from agriculture. These waste streams originate from arable land and horticulture. Agricultural waste are all parts of crops that are not used for human or animal food. Crop residues consist mainly of stems, branchs, and leaves. It is estimated that, on average, 80% of the plant of such crops consists of agricultural waste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food extrusion</span>

Extrusion in food processing consists of forcing soft mixed ingredients through an opening in a perforated plate or die designed to produce the required shape. The extruded food is then cut to a specific size by blades. The machine which forces the mix through the die is an extruder, and the mix is known as the extrudate. The extruder is typically a large, rotating screw tightly fitting within a stationary barrel, at the end of which is the die.

The Ensinger Group is engaged in the development and manufacture of compounds, semi-finished products, technical parts, composite materials and profiles made of engineering and high-performance plastics. The family-owned enterprise is represented in major industrial regions with manufacturing facilities or sales offices. The main office is located in Nufringen/Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Aleph Farms is a cellular agriculture company active in the food technology space. It was co-founded in 2017 with the Israeli food-tech incubator "The Kitchen" of Strauss Group Ltd., and with Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel.

Covema srl was a historic Italian company specializing in the design of plastic processing machinery, based in Milan, via Fontana 1. Founded in 1953 by the Terragni brothers, it also included the companies Corima spa, GBF spa, GBF iberica, RIAP srl, FIRS spa, Covepla Spain, Italproducts srl, Omam spa, TPA srl, AGRIPAK srl, Floraplant srl, Interfinance SA, Technical Die spa, Covema SAE. The technology that Covema has developed since the 1950s is merged into Agripak srl based in Milano and managed by the sons of Marco Terragni: Fabio Terragni (president), Patrizia Terragni and Massimo Terragni.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Annual Report 2019" (PDF). Viscofan. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  2. Morgado, Firmino. "Viscofan, oligopolio con poder sobre el precio". Expansión.
  3. Fernández Hódar, José Antonio. "Viscofan capea con ganancias un contexto de mercado adverso". Expansión.
  4. "Viscofan Bioengineering".

Bibliography