Ripple Effect
By Andrew Joseph, Features Editor
Automation Wulftec/M.J. Maillis Group Yum Yum Potato ChipsFULL CONTROL
“These improvements, combined with a better control of the quality processes, allowed Yum Yum to become the first chip manufacturer to achieve an ISO 9002 certification for quality management assurance in 1997.
“We also began to innovate with our product to come up with several new flavors and styles, such as a rippled chip, today offering five different flavors of our popular Ripplets brand,” Breton relates. “We also added a wide range of snack-foods to our product line, including popcorn, onion rings and French fries.”
According to Breton, the company’s long-nurtured tradition of putting the customer and the consumer first was in many ways behind its decision a few year back to begin manufacturing all of its potato chips without any trans-fats—becoming the first chip manufacturer to do so.
As part of its shift to making healthier products, the company also introduced the Viva Veggies brand of chips—produced in the pesto, tomato and basil, herbes de Provence and the original ‘Yum Yum’ flavors—featuring enhanced vegetable content.
Says Breton, “Yum Yum has always cared about its customers, which is why, in 2004, we were up to our old innovative ways again and developed a new generation of chips—vegetable chips made of 100-percent natural ingredients.”
Inspired by the success of the Viva Veggies brand, the company took it up another notch with the recent launch of the Viva Omega 3! —enriched with ground flax seeds and carefully cooked in canola oil, Breton reveals.
For any company expanding its product portfolio and taking on growing volumes of private-label work so rapidly, making sure that all the different products are shipped out to the customers in the most efficient way becomes a key production issue, which Yum Yum addressed last spring with installation of the fully-automatic Wulftec WCA-150 model stretchwrapper, and an innovative shuttle chain-transfer conveyance system, purchased through the Ste-Julie, Que.-based packaging equipment distributor Techno Pak Packaging Systems.
In addition to the Wulftec end-of-line equipment—manufactured by Wulftec/M.J. Maillis Group of Ayer’s Cliff, Que.—Techno Pak also supplied Yum Yum with several other new packaging machines, including a case erector manufactured by Wexxar Packaging, LLC; three vacuum-packers made by BluePrint Automation Inc.; a metal detection system from Fortress Technology Inc.; and a case labeler produced by Nita Labeling Equipment.
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