FDBusiness.com

A British software firm has landed a contract at a state-of-the-art beef processing facility set to open in Canada this year, which its owners claim is the “first of its kind” in North America.

Staffordshire-based Systems Integration (SI) provides software solutions for meat processing facilities and will be installed in the new Harmony Beef 75,000sq ft facility in Alberta, Canada.

The system will manage the entire production line from abattoir to retail pack.

The facility, which is undergoing a $20 million facelift, is expected to process in the region of 125 bovines each day. This number is predicted to increase to around 800 once the site is operating at full capacity.

Rich Vesta, owner of Harmony Beef, explained why he chose to work with SI: “People at SI understand the beef carcase and have actually cut meat. They know what the process is about and that was very important to us when selecting a supplier.

“I’ve owned and managed businesses in the meat sector for over 40 years and, during this time, I’ve struggled to find a software supplier with this level of industry knowledge. In the past we haven’t been able to find an ‘off the shelf’ system that would work for a beef processing business, so have developed various solutions ourselves. With SI, we soon became very confident that they can deliver what we need.”