RAPS Opens New Plant in Germany
RAPS has invested around €1.5 million in new technology at its German headquarters. Working with a renowned plant manufacturer, a state-of-the-art facility for raw material preparation has come to life. Offering a wider selection of cleaning methods and improved contaminant detection, the company can now handle a broader array of raw materials at higher throughput speeds.
RAPS delivers both segment- and client-specific services, and processes approximately 1,100 raw materials and ingredients from all over the world. With a total of seven production sites in Europe and more than 900 employees worldwide, RAPS produces over 40,000 tons of different food ingredients and additives each year.
With its new plant, RAPS is focusing on physical cleaning technology to achieve maximum raw material purity. Trials have shown that this method enables even the smallest foreign bodies to be identified and eliminated. As well as metal, glass, stones and bones, which are usually detected using X-ray equipment, RAPS’ innovative solution can also pick up wooden and plastic foreign objects and, at the same time, reduce raw material wastage.
Due to the diversity of the raw materials it deals with, the company had previously outsourced some of the purification processes to external contractors. Now, however, thanks to its investment, RAPS is able to handle everything in-house, meaning it can also meet stricter quality control criteria. “We work with natural raw materials and, as such, have to cope with fluctuations in quality and supply. The more our customers’ quality requirements increase, the more complex the processing procedures become. It is therefore essential that the technology we use keeps pace with these demands,“ says Florian Knell, Managing Director of RAPS GmbH & Co. KG. “It was a conscious decision to bring all of our raw material preparation in-house as we wanted to have complete control over every important processing step. In doing so, we can ensure continuous high standards, maximum transparency and full traceability for our customers.”
Frank Kühne, Chairman of the Advisory Board and Main Shareholder of RAPS GmbH & Co. KG, adds: “This investment is integral to keeping the company future-proof and competitive. These kinds of corporate decisions are geared to ensuring a long-term outlook for our German headquarters and the RAPS group in general. I am delighted that the plant is now operational – enabling us to react more flexibly to both market changes and individual customer demands.”
