tna to open Asia office

By Jenny Eagle

- Last updated on GMT

tna FOODesign to open Asia office
tna is celebrating the acquisition of FOODesign, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last month, and has announced plans to open an office in Asia in June.

Shayne De La Force, group marketing manager, tna, told FoodProductionDaily the acquisition came at the right time presenting a new opportunity for the firm, which is focusing on three areas of expansion; geographic region; application and products.

photo 2

German office

The company also opened a Central European office three weeks ago in Wettringen, north west Germany, including technical services, project management and post-installation assistance. 

We’ve known about FOODesign for a long time, they make high quality kettle batch fryers, baking and toasting ovens, based in Portland, Oregan​,” he said.

They are very North American-centric but didn’t have the sales and distribution channels to go global​.

We gained a whole new line of products that we didn’t have before. It has allowed us to get a stronger foothold in applications. For us, the geographic expansion will open up their market as well our own​.”

De La Force refused to discuss the financial figures of the acquisition but said regarding its expansion it was 80% of the way through that growth with 26 offices around the world, employing nearly 250 people.

We are focusing on Asia next. We just opened an office in Germany and in terms of our applications we are looking to grow beyond our core focus of snack foods into meat and poultry and fresh salad produce​,” he added.

Single source supplier

We’ve got a long way to go but with the FOODesign acquisition we have seen a 70% growth in our product offering. We are expanding our processing section which we never had before and eventually, we hope to become a single source supplier for all our customers​.”

The company has hired Neil Anderson as sales manager based in Oregon who will be responsible for FOODesign’s sales operations, both nationally in the US and internationally, as well as supporting sales staff.

Prior to FOODesign, Anderson was president of global sales and marketing for PPM Technologies.

Neil Anderson
Neil Anderson

Neil will head up the processing team and will have access to tna’s global support network. He brings 25 years of experience to the role​,” said De la Force.

FOODesign has about 20 employees and we had a joint celebration with a cake to celebrate the acquisition and its 20th​ anniversary​.

This deal is really big for us in terms of growing our sales. It is going to allow us to get to that next level, to grow and give customers a complete product​.”

The acquisition is effective from May 1, and the company will keep its name and become integrated into the tna group.

tna is exhibiting at Interpack, in Dusseldorf, Germany from May 8-14 in Hall 17 Stand B43.

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