DP Supply invests in fat powder and creamer capacity

30-Oct-2008 - Last updated on 30-Oct-2008 at 12:07 GMT

DP Supply is radically increasing its capacity for producing spray dried fat powders and vegetable-based creamers with the purchase of Nordmich’s plant in Beesten, Germany.

The Dutch company, which is part of the Basic Supply Group, has been involved in the dried fat sector some 17 years and currently has a production plant near Frankfurt which it shares with a joint venture partner. The existing plant has a capacity of 25-30,000 tonnes, which is split across both DP Supply’s powders and its partner’s dairy products.

But the Beesten plant, when it is at full capacity, will be able to deliver 50,000 tonnes – representing a huge expansion for the firm.

DP Supply, which has set up a new subsidiary called DP Trockewerk, will continue using the existing spray tower and in the next 12 months will install a new filtermat drying facility. Planned investment totals almost €20m.

DP Supply’s core activity is business-to-business, and its fat powders are used in a broad array of food products like bakery, soups and sauces, and ready meals. It also manufactures some coffee whiteners.

Managing director Jan Buining told FoodNavigator.com that the market for ingredients used in packaged foods as a whole has been growing geographically, as new demand has sprung from counties close to Western Europe, such as Eastern Europe and North Africa.

In terms of demand for dried fats, it is not necessarily a matter of dietary habits changing to eat more fatty foods, but more people wanting to “eat nice foods”. Buining pointed out that dried emulsions have a role in mouthfeel and taste.

“It is a way to make creamy foods without lifting fat levels too much.”

DP Supply’s fat powders come from a variety of vegetable sources, from soy to palm oil to coconut.

A future for Beesten

Nordmilch announced in May 2007 that it planned to close its Beesten plant (as well as another in Isernhagen near Hanover). The reason cited was a need to improve cost effectiveness. “Such measures are the company’s only chance of future survival in the hotly contested global market, and the only way to guarantee shareholders competitive milk prices in the long term,” it said at the time.

However as part of the deal with DP supply, Nordmilch is retaining a 30 per cent share in the plant. This will give it the right to carry on using a spray drier if it needs to.

Buining explained that milk powders can solve problems over fluctuating milk supply, so it is helpful to keen that capacity open.

DP Supply will employ the dryer for its products when Nordmilch is not using it.

DP Supply will also employ 41 of 90 staff who worked at the site for Nordmilch.