Ausnutria reaches a milestone in the construction of its new factory in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, on Tuesday 18 October. On that day, a large part of the new drying tower will be lifted into the more than 40 meter high building. The new factory will soon guarantee a completely gas-free production process for the production of semi-finished infant nutrition and will be completely CO2 and nitrogen-free.
Ausnutria is the world market leader in infant nutrition based on goat's milk. At the Ausnutria production site in Heerenveen, there are currently two packaging factories for mixing and packaging infant nutrition and a tin manufacturing factory. In September 2021 the construction of a new factory started; a factory for the production of base powder for infant nutrition from fresh goat's milk. With this Ausnutria is working on expanding its production capacity.
Construction progress
The new factory will be realized in collaboration with a number of suppliers, including Jorritsma Bouw, Sijtsma Noord, Tetra Pak, Kuipers Woudsend, Altum Technical Solutions, EQUANS, Lasmotec and GEA HRT. A large part of the building has now been given its final shape and a start has been made with the building-related installation. Tuesday 18 October the large components of the drying tower will be lifted into the building. Part of the highways A7 and A32 will be closed on Friday and Saturday night for the transport of the drying tower of producer Kuipers in Woudsend to the Ausnutria site in Heerenveen. The transport of these tower parts is provided by Mammoet Nederland B.V. Subsequently, on October 18, the components will be lifted by Mammoet in the factory and placed in place.
Sustainable factory
In a traditional milk powder factory you will always find steam boilers and/or gas-fired heaters. By choosing to build this new factory, Ausnutria also opted for a production process that is as sustainable as possible: gasless, electric and without any nitrogen emissions. Jelte Smits, Project leader Ausnutria B.V. : “A completely gasless milk powder factory is unique in the Netherlands – I suspect even worldwide. The techniques we use are not new, but the scale at which we apply and integrate them is unprecedented.” The energy saving compared to a traditional drying tower amounts to approx. 40%.
Employment opportunities
The factory is expected to be operational by the end of 2023 and will provide employment for about 50 employees in the second half of 2023. To this end, Ausnutria will start training staff in the first half of next year.
