When Quality Counts
06 December 2007
The Japanese chocolate manufacturer Lotte is now in a position to even faster react to the changing market requirements thanks to their newly purchased Bühler Bindler shell moulding line. The Lotte Co Ltd. ranges among one of the largest family owned enterprises in the candy industry throughout the world. The head office is located at Shinjuku near the government residence in Tokyo. The company was founded in 1948. Since 1967 Lotte has also run a business in South Korea regis-tered as the Lotte Confectionery Co Ltd.
In the last few years the Lotte Group also expanded into numerous other branches of industry like beverages, marketing and distribution, leisure, heavy chemicals, machinery, building construction, informatics and services. The Lotte group also owns companies and factories in Thailand, the Philippines, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia and the USA Lotte incorporates more than 50 business areas with 38,000 people employed. The whole group achieves a yearly turnover of roughly US$30 billion.
CHOCOLATE WITH SWISS TASTE
Lotte's first product label – the Ghana milk chocolate – was launched onto the market in 1964. At that time most of the Japanese chocolate manufacturers concentrated on products based on the easy American taste. In contrast to this the Ghana Milk Chocolate offers a rich Swiss milk taste with the characteristic soft melting. Even today, the Japanese 'Swiss Chocolate' is still one of the most popular milk chocolates in the high quality section in Japan. Lotte's latest product is called 'Charlotte'. The product can be described as a thin square tablet with cream filling. The shell chocolate contains a high proportion of cocoa. The filling is a chocolate cream and resembles a fine, handmade Ganache chocolate.
A NEW SHELL MOULDING LINE
The Lotte Company installed a new shell moulding line for the manufacture of the quality product 'Charlotte'. Among others, highest quality in terms of line efficiency, combined with the maximum flexibility in production and local service, represented the decisive factors to buy the new Bühler Bindler moulding line.
In order to meet the high expectations and characteristics Lotte chose to use a multifunctional line: the Bühler Bindler 'ChocoStar™' with loose moulds and standardized servo drive technology. A total of 34 independent drives for depositing heads, mould conveyors and cooling towers allow an easy change to alternative process cycles in combination with highest hygiene standards.
GRAND MARNIER FOR TOPPING OFF THE TASTE
Lotte demanded a thickness of less than 1mm for the chocolate shell. The ultra- modern Bühler Bindler CoolCore™ cold stamping technology met this requirement. The CoolCore system enables the manufacture of an extremely even shell thickness with enhanced shell gloss at a high production capacity. The high performance depositing heads Type PowerShot™ with servo-controlled pistons serving individual nozzles allow a maximum precision in deposit. The fresh chocolate cream will be carefully mixed with a high quality orange liqueur (Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge). This symphony of a rich cocoa taste and a plain fruity flavour convinces all chocolate enthusiasts with a fine bite and an harmonic taste.
TOTALLY SATISFIED
Lotte is highly pleased with the new shell moulding line. Though the technical reliability of Bühler Bindler moulding lines is well known to the company. The handling of this new project with the best possible support on site on part of the Buhler crew in Yokohama, adherence to dates during installation, quality and high standards of hygiene throughout the entire line, the smooth commissioning process as well as the exemplary training of the operating personnel and the technical support after production take-over have again confirmed the correct decision to buy Bühler Bindler equipment. The new moulding line enables Lotte to more promptly react to the fast moving Japanese market and to launch a new chocolate product onto the market each year.
Buhler is a global leader in the supply of process engineering solutions, especially production technologies for making foods and engineering materials. Buhler is present in over 140 countries and employs some 6,600 people. In fiscal 2006, the Group generated sales of CHF 1,613 million.
