Aasted equipment becomes shareholder of SweetConnect digital manufacturing hub

A major strategic investment has been made by Danish-based machinery business Aasted, as it becomes shareholder in SweetConnect, an innovative digital platform driving efficiencies across confectionery manufacturing, reports Neill Barston.

The business, which is based in Farum, north of Copenhagen, has steadily expanded its portfolio of equipment across the chocolate, bakery and wider segment, and recognised the continuing potential of the recently created German-founded online sector hub, which has attracted some of the largest names operating in the industry.

To date, the platform includes key names such as Sollich, Theegarten-Pactec, Winkler und Dünnebier Süßwarenmaschinen, and Chocotech, which have all signed up to  SweetConnect, which has been established to sensitively share performance and production and performance data in a secure manner in a bid to maximise output collectively across the companies’ respective operations.

As Tim Hellwig, managing director of SweetConnect noted, ‘collaboration is key’ in meeting the demands of a global industry, which as we have previously reported, has continued to face a number of supply chain challenges including inflation of ingredients costs including cocoa and sugar, as well as additional international logistics costs that have continued to have an impact on the sector.

“Only together, we can replace piecemeal approaches and work towards a unified solution that benefits all”, commented Tim Hellwig, of SweetConnect. It is a sentiment  Aasted’s CEO Piet Hoffmann Tæstensen shared, as many market-participants push their individual ideas into the market, leaving confectionery producers with fragmented systems that don’t communicate or simply do not service the entire production process, which is often highly individualised and varies from producer to producer. “It has proven difficult and inefficient for standalone businesses to tackle the complexity a true solution requires alone”, Hoffmann added.

As Aasted noted, it comes as no surprise that SweetConnect’s main challenge remains convincing competing machine manufacturers to collaborate for the good of their clients, although many of the primary concerns are unfounded.

Markus Rustler,  CEO of Theegarten-Pactec has been a strong advocate of SweetConnect. PIc: Neill Barston

Tim Hellwig added: “The platform is technically designed not to be able to share your intellectual property or your customers’ data. In fact, data from different sources is strictly stored separate.”, he explains. “What we do share, however, are the benefits. Confectionery producers benefit from more functionality and a wider range of supported machines. And with every new machine manufacturer we gain, the number of customers using the SweetConnect platform exponentially increases. A solution developed with combined know-how and experience simply has the highest potential to get it right and subsequently be accepted by customers around the globe.”

Enrico Franz, Business Development Manager at SweetConnect, believed the platform held particularly strong potential for the remainder of the industry, given the scale of potential manufacturing productivity gains that can be achieved using the system.

He said:  “This is a win-win scenario for machine builders and confectionery producers”, as  “By joining, machine manufacturers gain valuable insights on the performance of their equipment, increase the quality of their customer service, and generate new business, upselling and aftermarket-sales opportunities. Confectionery producers, on the other hand, can significantly reduce downtimes by accelerating the procurement process of spare and wear parts, while lowering response times through access to best practices and knowledge, resulting in a smoothly running production.”