Developing western snacks with an ‘Arabic’ spin on them
tna sees Middle East as fastest growing market
Speaking to FoodProductionDaily at Interpack 2014 in Dusseldorf, Germany (May 8-14) Green said its recent acquisition of FOODesign, based in Oregon, US, was ‘not the end point’ and it planned to make more announcements in the New Year.
Disposable income
“The Middle East and Africa is growing very quickly now because people have more disposable income,” said Green.
“As that’s growing the trend to start snacking increases with it. We currently have an office in Dubai serving the whole of the Middle East and we have plans to open a second office in the region.
“We have 13 offices around the world and open one in Germany to cover central Europe this year. We are continuing to expand and our support structures in the markets that are growing.
“Wherever the market is, that’s where we will be and we plan to make another announcement in the next 12-18 months. We have our eye on two or three regions for expansion and the Middle East is one of them.”
Green said the company was looking to develop its western snacks with a spin on the flavours to meet the Middle East market demands, for example, instead of using potato as a base, using chick peas, cumins and more Moroccan style flavours, which it is still developing with its customers.
“We see South America moving beyond an emerging market right now and the challenge is to integrate the products we have got,” added Green.
Africa
“Also, in countries like Africa, customers are starting to install small processing lines and they are looking for someone to provide everything from the potato to the bag, not just the equipment but the total system in a fully integrated way and they need the experience of how to produce these products.”
Talking about the acquisition with FOODesign, Green said North America was an important market for tna and spoke about the relevance of hiring Neil Anderson who will be responsible for FOODesign’s sales operations, both nationally in the US and internationally.
Prior to FOODesign, Anderson was president of global sales and marketing for PPM Technologies.
“As we have expanded our product range it is very difficult for everyone in our sales and marketing team around the world to know everything about each of our products,” added Green.
“Where we’ve made these expansions from packaging to conveying into seasonal and spraying solutions we’ve had dedicated product managers, Neil is the fifth in the series of those. It’s a really important role to support the sales team and our customers.
“The developing markets are key to us. In terms of this acquisition we see it as bringing an innovation of choice to the ‘developed markets’ but our total integrated solutions to the ‘developing markets’. It fits both of our key objectives.”
tna acquired FOODesign, which makes fryers and cookers, including kettle batch fryers, baking and toasting ovens, and specialty roasting equipment for food processing plants, as of May 1.
The company will keep its name and become integrated into the tna group.