Since the company was founded in the early 1990’s, CONGALSA has built a reputation for the quality of its frozen, ready-cooked seafood dishes combined with the highest levels of service. Today it has more than 600 retail and wholesale customers in 25 countries, supplying both branded and private label products.

To cope with the demand for its products, CONGALSA has 3 factories producing 26,000 tonnes of products each year, and more than 50,000 cubic meters of cold storage. Each factory has benefited from the company’s policy of re-investing profits in the latest production equipment and processes.

So, for a company committed to production quality and innovation, the choice of a coding supplier was an important one.

‘We began to work with MARKEM in 1997 and since then we have had no problems’ said Eric Larguet, CONGALSA’s Industrial Manager. ‘Experience has taught us to look for equipment that is very reliable, that is always ready whenever it’s needed. We want suppliers we can trust to solve our future requirements and day-to-day issues. At present, we have a perfect solution for each of our lines - bags and labels, continuous and intermittent, vertical and horizontal form, fill and seal, small and large print areas.’ Bags of pre-cooked products and pastries are printed with real-time date codes, logos and graphics using MARKEM thermal transfer technology. Large area SmartDate coders allow CONGALSA to print all the product information required and to dispense with pre-printed bags. On continuous applications, they have installed the latest SmartDate 5 equipment, versatile, high speed coders.

Cartons are permanently and cleanly identified by a number of SmartLase coders; compact CO2 laser markers contained within IP65 wash-down resistant enclosures.

‘This is really important because this production environment is a harsh one, very cold and humid’ commented Eric Larguet.

MARKEM also provided a solution for corrugated shipping cases. 5000 Series Hot Melt inkjet coders print all the required information directly onto the cases, combining real-time product data, logos and graphics.

Eric Larguet explained the advantages of this operation. ‘Environmentally speaking, we appreciate the cleanliness of the hot melt ‘ink’, and the print quality enables us to make savings through standardizing on generic packing materials. We purchase plain white or brown corrugated cases and overprint them on demand. Our customers are happy with the print quality, and we are able to keep our inventory stocks to a minimum’.

CONGALSA also uses MARKEM ‘print and apply’ technologies for certain case and labeling applications. A Cimpak 300 pallet labeler is being integrated into the end of line packing operation, automatically identifying three sides of the shipment without having to rotate the pallet. The company’s latest project is to integrate the coding process, using MARKEM CoLOS® networking and image creation software to provide centralized control from a single PC, and has made code changeovers quick and simple to manage. ‘Our aim is to achieve complete automation of our lines, and we are working closely with MARKEM to make this possible’ commented Mr. Larguet.

Working together in a spirit of continuous improvement, the two companies are determined to deliver the best coding quality and performance. ‘Increased production efficiency allows us to re-invest in the finest ingredients for our products’ concludes Eric Larguet. ‘This enhances our reputation for product quality, the key to our future success.’