Dr. Uberto Selvatico Estense, ANSELMO: “We strongly believe it is important to solve customer problems, rather than sell them only equipment. This is already our approach when we offer our Products/Services but, of course, we are interested, as well, to offer our customers a wider range of solutions. For this reason, as of June, we have taken over full activities of FEN, the global market leader in the field of equipment for industrial production of: snack pellets, direct expanded snacks, breakfast cereals, instant powders, gluten free pasta. This is an opportunity for ANSELMO to be present in a market that is rapidly growing worldwide and to extend its Foods Production Technologies portfolio, in the food sector derived from the cereal processing chain.”

Interview: Mustafa YAĞMURLU The global pasta trade, which has reached a market size of 10 billion dollars, attracts many investors. Investors who want to shine out the competition, reduce costs and provide advantages against competitors thanks to the latest technology facilities. Italians, known for their pasta and pizzas, keep the leading position in food processing equipment. ANSELMO, one of the major reference worldwide in the design, construction, and installation of pasta production machinery, offers turnkey solutions with special pasta packaging and storage systems. Speaking to BBM Magazine, Dr. Uberto Selvatico Estense, the President of ANSELMO, said they have become the leader of the industry by establishing 26 production lines in Turkey in the last decade. Uberto Selvatico Estense said that they will keep close to the Turkish market in order to maintain their leading position and the Middle East market is also indispensable for them.

Mr. Uberto pointed out that they took over all operations of FEN in June in order to offer more options to companies operating in the Pasta and Snacks sectors and those who want to invest in this field.

Mr. Uberto Selvatico Estense’s answers to our questions are as follows:

Can you tell us about ANSELMO’s establishment story and its work? ANSELMO, is an Italian Company which produces and installs automatic industrial equipment for dry pasta production (both short and long cut) and couscous. ANSELMO activity started more than 40 years ago and now, thanks to this long-standing experience, the Company is recognized as one of the most important pasta equipment producer in the world.

You are among the reference suppliers for the most important pasta producers in the world with the pasta production facilities you have established so far. What distinguishes you from your competitors? ANSELMO products are appreciated for their extremely high reliability, where the production of high quality pasta is guaranteed since the first minutes of start-up and the production capacity is normally higher than the expected nominal value. Furthermore, our equipment almost do not need maintenance during the first 10 years of operation and the energy consumption is lower than any other solution present nowadays in the market.

[caption id="attachment_2509" align="aligncenter" width="660"] FEN EXTRUDER 1000 KG/H[/caption]

THE HIGH LEVEL OF SERVICE IS PART OF ANSELMO HISTORY Considering all the above how can you be competitive in terms of price and can you tell me something about your level of service? Even if it could sound strange, considering the high quality, we have very competitive selling prices and our products are widely known for their highest profitability against investment. There are 2 main reasons why:

1- ANSELMO is a Company with a lean organization and very low overheads. 2- Despite the above structure, ANSELMO is part of an important Group of Italian Companies, specialized in the field of ferrous and nonferrous metal working. The high level of automation present in all component construction, is granting competitive construction prices and extremely high responsiveness, in case of peaks in market demands.

The high Level of service is, in the other hand, part of the Company history. In the first 20 year of his life, ANSELMO was specialized in maintenance service for pasta factories. This has formed in the Company a clear awareness of the value of the “service” word. For us it’s quite simple: we are available for our Customers 24/7 during the 52 weeks of the year!!

FEN WILL OFFER NEW OPPORTUNITIES TO OUR CUSTOMERS We can see now in the equipment market offer, a very strong concentration. There are big Groups offering a wide range of different solution for different food production technologies. What is your strategy to take on this new challenge? We strongly believe it is important to solve Customer problems, rather than sell them only equipment. This is already our approach when we offer our Products/Services but, of course, we are interested, as well, to offer our Customers a wider range of solutions.

For this reason, starting from last month of June, we have taken over the full activities of FEN (www.fenitalia.com), the global market leader in the field of equipment for the industrial production of: snack pellets, direct expanded snacks, breakfast cereals, instant powders, gluten free pasta and, more in general, of extruded-based food.

This is an opportunity for ANSELMO to be present in a Market that is rapidly growing worldwide and to extend its Foods Production Technologies portfolio, in the food sector derived from the cereal processing chain.

The main objective is to offer to the Food Production Companies that already operate in the Pasta and Snacks sectors, and those that intend to enter in it, a wider range of options to expand their offer, having a stronger Partner able to support them in their development, with different Technologies and a stronger level of Service.

What are your studies and objectives aiming the Turkish and Middle Eastern markets? How would you evaluate the Turkish market? Is there a market that you focus on? Turkey has been a booming market in terms of investment for pasta production in the last 10 years. This has happened because exports of Turkish pasta, especially to Africa, have grown exponentially in this period. The Turkish pasta quality is excellent and the product is sold at extremely competitive prices. These are more or less the same competitive advantages of our production lines and, we believe this is the reason why we are the most successfull pasta line producer in this Country, having sold 26 line in the last 10 years!!

We do not expect the same growth rate will continue in the next future, however we will stay close to this Market because we want to keep our leading position and because we believe Turkey will continue its growth offering as well top quality pasta for the most attractive and high demanding Markets, maybe producing special pasta like Gluten Free or Instant Pasta.

The Middle East is, of course, a very inportant Market, not only for pasta but for snacks as well. We will therefore intensify our Commercial effort in order to acheive an ever-increasing penetration in this important Region.

Coming to the last question we HAVE to follow all world Market! Some new Countries/Regions are emerging in terms of food consumption volumes and, in the meantime, they are also changing their eating habits. This is offering new opportunities we have to monitor very carefully.

What do you pay attention to when setting up a turn-key facility? Again we have to refer to a subject we have already addressed in the previous questions. Customers are more and more looking for solutions rather than simple machines. This means we have to provide them Services, which can solve their problems with maximum reactivity and reasonable costs.

WE PRODUCE MACHINES FOR ALL KINDS OF PASTA According to IPO data, there are more than 500 types of pasta in the world. As ANSELMO, for how many kinds of pasta do you provide infrastructure? ANSELMO is able to offer solutions for ALL the 500 shapes. Our line are normally very flexible due to our decision not to stress too much the drying time. However, we have developed unique solutions like, for instance, a line able to produce both Short Cut Shapes AND Nests. This is a very important development because, before our solution, the pasta producer were forced to have 3 different production lines for the 3 different shapes families: short, long and nest. Now with 2 lines they can produce all kind of pasta they like!!

How do you assess the increase in pasta consumption and some luxurious brands heading towards pasta production? Pasta consumption is increasing all over the world and this trend will continue in the next decades. The product in general is cheap, healthy and easy to prepare, compared to the direct competitors: rice and potatoes. However, the offer is very diverse in terms of quality…..and price…depending on the final Market/Consumer target. ANSELMO equipment are present in pasta Companies focused to price oriented Markets and as well in others which are looking for high demanding Markets were, obviously, volumes are lower and selling price are much higher. This kind of producers are searching, obsessively, the highest possible quality, using exceptional raw materials and using, as well, tailor made production lines (normally oversized), that can process the raw material in the best possible way.

There is a constantly developing technology in the world. How does this developing technology affect your sector? The possibility offered by the information technologies are really high: the production line will be more and more, not only able to self-adjust the process parameters, in order to grant production consistency, but as well to self-learn how to optimize these parameters.

On the other hand, we believe that the fundamental concepts of pasta production process are strongly consolidated. Often the attempts to distort them, see presses or dryers with process times that are too short, have failed or have shown strong criticalities. Obviously, any innovation brings some benefits but it is important that these are not undermined by negative effects that, very often, occur only over time. In other words the question is: does extreme technological conditions brings greater added value to the Customer ... or is it only an expedient to bring more profit to the machine manufacturer?

RELIABILITY, LOW BUSINESS COST AND LONG LASTING Could you tell us about the work of your technology and R&D department? We strongly believe the most important values of a production line are reliability, low running cost and long lasting life. We are therefore constantly, I would say daily, committed to improve these features, through the continuous improvement of the characteristic of each single component. Evidence of this are the patents we have obtained over time for the transport systems of both long and short pasta. It is exactly due to these simple but ingenious devices, if our plants so unique and so efficient.

What are the advantages of being an Italian brand? To be an Italian brand in food processing equipment, especially for pasta production, is definitely and advantage. Not only from a psychological point of view, as many of the products such as pasta, pizza and ice cream are recognized as Italian products, but because the Italian mechanical industry excellence, is recognized all over the world.

[caption id="attachment_2510" align="aligncenter" width="660"] ANSELMO LONG CUT LINE 4000 KG/H[/caption]

GLUTEN FREE AND INSTANT PASTA: OUR INNOVATIONS You are producing machinery for pasta which is a product consumed all over the world. What are the popular trends in the pasta industry? The product that is actually most growing in terms of percentage in the world is Gluten free pasta. With the acquisition of FEN, ANSELMO is now able to process this kind of pasta with an extrusion stage which is cooking ingredients, like rice or corn flour that, otherwise, could not be used in the pasta production, due to the absence of Gluten.

Another trend that is emerging in the rich Countries, but which may also have repercussions in the emerging ones, is the tendency to reduce sugars from the diet. We know that pasta is a carbohydrate and therefore a sugar. In these cases, it is possible to replace, totally or partially, the flour or semolina derived from wheat, with pulses flours, which, having higher proteins and fibers, provides lower level of carbohydrates. Always thanks to the acquisition of Fen, ANSELMO it is now a reference supplier also for this type of products which, it is worth to remember, have a very high added value for our Customers.

Is there anything else you want to add? I did not mention in the previous point another important development, because it is not yet possible to talk about “popular trends”, but ANSELMO has recently launched a new technology for the production of Instant Pasta.

We strongly believe that Instant Pasta is the natural development of pasta consumption for the new generations, increasingly inclined to consume food out of home and very sensitive to the convenience factor. In instant pasta, as in the case of Instant Noodles, which have an extraordinary worldwide success with more than 100 billion cups per year sold in the world, you don’t need a pot to cook pasta, a pan to prepare the sauce… and there are not dishes to wash!

However, unlike noodles, Instant pasta is a much healthier product: the Nutritional Values of the two products are very different: pasta is not fried in oil and un-necessary additives like Glutamate… or flavors (see chicken flavor in certain kind of noodles!!!), or color, are not present while other minor ingredient, like salt, are extremely limited.

Also with this last offer, ANSELMO is showing the will to pursue with perseverance and determination the main goal of the Company’s mission: “to provide maximum added value to our Customers”.