Home Latest ‘Three highs, one low’: How CP Foods’ pre-COVID-19 technology investments helped it through crisis – Chairman Exclusive Part II

‘Three highs, one low’: How CP Foods’ pre-COVID-19 technology investments helped it through crisis – Chairman Exclusive Part II

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‘Three highs, one low’: How CP Foods’ pre-COVID-19 technology investments helped it through crisis – Chairman Exclusive Part II

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In the second of an exclusive two-part series on CP’s aggressive US expansion, Boonchai explained to FoodNavigator-Asia​ how the firm’s insistence on technological upgrades and investments ended up helping it tide smoothly through the severe crisis situation in the United States.

“When we bought frozen foods giant Bellissio in 2016 and took over the facility in Jackson, Ohio, it was a building that was built some 50 to 60 years ago, so we decided to make major technological upgrades instead of continuing with a labour-intensive process,”​ he told us.

“The Ohio facility produces around 1.5 million to two million packs of frozen foods per day, so the labour involved was immense, and we opted to invest US$150mn to upgrade the facility to Industry 4.0 quality, covering things like automation, robotic systems, a central palletized system and more.

“The aim all along was to improve food safety and to minimize waste from production – then COVID-19 came along this year and suddenly it became a priority to minimize human contact with the food, which we found ourselves in a strong position to do despite the bizarre, unchartered waters.

“As a result of all the technological upgrades we had made, none of CP Foods’ production operations were interrupted at all even in the United States when things got really bad.”

The plant is estimated to be as big as 20 American football fields, provides jobs for about half of the 7,000-strong Jackson community.

Boonchai stressed that CP’s early investment and adamance on technology since long before COVID-19 has not only helped the firm tide through the crisis, but also resulted in much higher cost efficiencies.

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