IDM ¦ Packaging
Rapunzel Naturkost expands
production capacity
Wrap-around packers as central components
Rapunzel Naturkost, Legau, Germany, is modernising and
expanding its nut spread production and filling facilities
at its site. The internationally operating organic food producer
decided in favour of the same wrap-around packer
for both projects. The modernisation has already been successfully
completed, commissioning of the new plant will take place later
this year. A portrait.
Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
Even if it sometimes requires a lot of staying power – as was the
case with Jennifer Vermeulen and Joseph Wilhelm. Back in 1974
the couple founded a self-sufficiency commune on a farm near
Augsburg. “We simply wanted to live a healthier life and share
this lifestyle with others,” Wilhelm recalls, looking back. In 1975
they went on to open their natural health food store “Rapunzel
Naturspeisen” in Augsburg’s city centre. To begin with, the young
couple’s vision and commitment were mostly laughed at, Wilhelm
recounts: “We were just the crazy muesli-eaters, the ones with the
knitted sweaters and sandals.”
From exotic undertaking to organic
food protagonist
Once referred to as an exotic undertaking, Rapunzel Naturkost
has since developed into an international business with over 400
employees. The company strategy itself has remained the same
throughout its forty-five-year history: to produce certified organic,
natural and untreated vegetarian foods. The company headquarters
and production site has been the former dairy plant in Legau
in Unterallgäu since 1985.
There are around 550 Rapunzel brand products. These include
sweet and savoury spreads, nuts and dried fruits, muesli varieties,
cereals, grains and grain products, rice, oil seeds, legumes, pasta
and tomato sauces, antipasti, edible oils and fat, seasoning spices
and soups, sweeteners and baking ingredients, sweet and savoury
12 · May/June 2022 ¦ international-dairy.com
snacks, chocolate and instant beverage powder as well as wine.
Of these, the nut butters in jars make up an essential part of the
Rapunzel product range and play a decisive role in the company’s
success. The most visible evidence of this is a constant increase in
the production and filling in Legau. And this is exactly the area for
which Rapunzel planned two new projects for 2020 and 2021.
The investment decision was based on the two existing spread
filling and packaging lines. There was a growing need for action
here, especially in the older nut butter plant 1, recalls Florian Lechner,
team leader of Production and machine operator: “Its packing
machine was becoming increasingly prone to failure and it was
also more and more difficult to acquire spare parts. Besides this,
we also wanted to achieve a higher output.” The keywords here
are output and performance, and in order to meet the growing demand
for nut butter a completely new line 3 was also to be built.
The search for a wrap-around packer
ended at Fachpack
Managers at Rapunzel therefore embarked on a search for a suitable
solution – and they found what they were looking for at the
Fachpack trade fair in Nuremberg. Florian Lechner recalls: “A+F
presented exactly the machine we had in mind. At the trade fair
this was packing similar jars of mustard into trays.” Among other
things, Rapunzel saw a particularly convincing technical solution in
the infeed and liked the fact that the entire system was arranged
on one level and everything was easily accessible and cleanable.
“We thought this was really good and consequently ordered two
identical plants for the modernisation and the construction of the
new line,” Lechner comments.
The two Rapunzel machines are based on the proven Modul-
Line packaging and cartoning system. The required format parts for
product adaptation were individually designed and manufactured
for the tasks at Rapunzel. Rapunzel also specified requirements
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