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Customer Testimonial: How BW Simionato Supported IQF Pasta Manufacturer's Transition from Restaurant to Global Retail Supplier

When Covid-19 shut down the restaurant industry globally, Surgital, an artisanal fresh pasta manufacturer from Emilia-Romagna – a land of great gastronomic culture and tradition in making fresh pasta by hand – was facing a tremendous challenge for its business: over 90% of their production was delivered directly to restaurants.

Knowing the company couldn’t survive this shutdown for very long, Edoardo Bacchini, managing director at Surgital, knew he and his family-operated business needed to act fast.

Today Surgital produces IQF fresh pasta on a large scale, bringing fresh pasta to the world, thanks to the support of BW Simionato, a BW Flexible Systems brand.

To overcome the shutdown, Surgital needed to invest in the appropriate technology to make this transition, and BW Simionato helped every step along the way.

“We explained our needs, defined our project: fragility of the product, need to increase productivity, and high sanitation requirements. And they said, ‘let’s do this!’” said Bacchini.

Besides time being of the essence, the highest priority of the project was the gentle handling and preservation of the delicate and fragile pasta. BW Simionato needed to incorporate a way to weigh the pasta with a scale designed specifically for the handling of fragile products, concurrently weighing the IQF sauce as well as any other ingredients that were mixed on the scale. This was accomplished by splitting the scale into several parts and, in addition to protecting the pasta, ensured high productivity and met the stringent hygiene requirements.

With the solution that BW Simionato found, when the recipe is changed, the customer can use a different part of the scale immediately to continue production without needing to clean the used parts of the scale first.

“I am happy I chose BW Simionato for the cooperation and support, in such a short time they helped transform our business,” said Bacchini. “In fact, there are 2 stir-fry packaging lines running now, which has become a huge success for us.”

This transition has opened a lot of doors for Surgital.

“One container full of stir-fry product leaves our factory every single day in the United States,” said Bacchini. In total, Surgital now ships product to over 60 countries.

BW Simionato’s company culture played a key role in this relationship, both from a technical as well as a negotiation perspective.  Surgital, as an Italian company that puts the safety of its employees, sustainable production, and investment in the local area and charitable initiatives first, working with BW Simionato seemed like a natural choice. By exporting their fresh pasta to the world, they are spreading their culture and values of a healthy business with certified quality products, plants and procedures. 

“We made the customer’s problem ours, and the solution was found thanks to great cooperation between our teams,” said Filippo Zatti, IQF Business Development Manager at BW Flexible Systems.

The success of this challenging project with Surgital underlines the technical expertise of the BW Team and shows that BW Simionato can solve any integrated packaging challenge.

With the addition of two full BW lines with a 16-heads RCW scale and a 10-heads RCW scale with 2 inclined Logic 35 VFFS underneath, Surgital now operates a total of 34 production lines in its headquarters in Lavezzola, located in the province of Ravenna.

“Any time we call BW Simionato and ask for support, they are there for us and they respond quickly,” said Bacchini. “Our machines run 24 hours a day and this success is thanks to our cooperation with BW Simionato.”

LEARN MORE

Learn more about Surgital: www.surgital.it/ 

Learn more about Simionato®: www.bwflexiblesystems.com/brand/simionato 

Learn more about BW Flexible Systems: www.bwflexiblesystems.com/our-company