Omani firm opens food processing plant in Saudi

Muscat: AATCO Food Industries, a privately-held Omani food condiment manufacturing company, has opened a futuristic new processing plant in Saudi Arabia.
The plant in Jeddah’s industrial area is aimed at serving the needs of the company’s rapidly expanding customer base in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Levant, Africa, Asia and Oceania, said AATCO’s managing director Dr Kamel Abdallah.
“The new plant will also enable us to accommodate even further growth in the region,” added Dr Abdallah. “AATCO is now uniquely positioned to meets the needs of our food solutions, HoReCa and retail customers.”
AATCO, established more than 20 years ago, makes products for ‘household name’ quick service restaurants in over 30 countries including a comprehensive range of sauces and salad dressings sold under its Delicio, Khaburah, Barka and Al Bustan brands.
News of the plant opening came at Gulfood 2016, currently running at Dubai World Trade Centre until February 25.
“The state-of-the-art factory is built to the world class hygiene standard of EHEDG (European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group) taking into consideration our responsibility towards our customers and the environment. Much time has been taken deliberating on the details required to deliver the most modern facility in the region for the production of condiments,” he said.
The factory infrastructure has adopted the best solutions in the industry for flooring, drainage, ventilation and lighting to ensure the safest environment for food production of the highest quality. This is backed up by a state-of-the-art fully automatic system for processing AATCO’s range of mayo, ketchup and sauces products and a fully automated line that guarantees product consistency.
In this way, the company will be able to deliver the finest quality products that meet its customers highly demanding expectations. Filling lines are fully automated at all stages to ensure no manual intervention and the highest food safety and quality. In establishing its Saudi processing facility, AATCO has partnered with the best European equipment manufacturers.
The Jeddah factory is built with sustainability in mind and underpins AATCO’s core belief in its responsibility towards society and the environment. The design of the line cleaning systems ensures minimum waste and much less usage of chemicals. This is also supported by a state-of-the-art waste treatment plant to demonstrate maximum environmental responsibility.
The design of the chiller facility features the most environmentally responsible equipment with a much lighter environmental footprint. AATCO is one of the first leading manufacturers in the Middle East region to use this technology.
At Gulfood 2016, the world’s largest annual and food and hospitality trade show, AATCO is promoting its products, packaging formats and research and development expertise.
Gulfood 2016 is a strictly trade-only event for business and trade visitors. With more than 85,000 visitors from over 170 countries expected this year, Gulfood 2016 is hosting international heads of state, ministers, government officials and national trade associations from five continents.