Tomra sorting group opens new regional headquarters in Johannesburg
Tomra - Operations Hub Johannesburg
Sorting technology group Tomra has confirmed the opening of new regional headquarters in Johannesburg, to expand its presence in the region.
The facility will support customers in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania, and is designed to enhance customer care with enhanced technical support, service, and training, and to ensure prompt availability of spare parts.
Furthermore, the move will also improve operational efficiencies by bringing together under one roof all three Tomra business divisions: Mining, Recycling, and Food.
The company’s new facilities are housed in a two-story, 1,800 square-metre building which accommodates offices, a warehouse, spare parts area, two training rooms, and three additional meeting rooms.
There is also the space here to demonstrate the company’s sensor-based sorting technologies. The building’s location on the edge of the Longmeadow Business Estate, Edenvale, to the north-east of Johannesburg. The development has become part of a global network that now includes a total of 4,000 employees.
Albert du Preez, Senior Vice-President at Tomra, commented: “This investment affirms Tomra Food’s wholehearted and long-term commitment to South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania. These are growing markets that we take very seriously. The 26-strong team operating out of our new headquarters will support customers in South Africa and all other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Tomra Food and the two other brands in the Tomra Food family, BBC Technologies and Compac, offer high-grade sorting and grading technologies and integrated post-harvest solutions. These include the world’s most advanced grading, sorting, peeling, and analytical technologies for fruits, nuts, vegetables, potato products, grains and seeds, dried fruit, and seafood.
Such solutions are of ever-increasing importance in Africa, as they are on other continents around the world, because of the need to feed growing populations through more efficient food production.
Norman Smith, Area Sales Manager, said: “The new premises in Johannesburg highlight our dedication to the African market, and our commitment to continue building our food division in this region. Our new offices will act as the sales and after-sales hub for Sub-Saharan Africa, and in the future potentially for the rest of Africa.
“Having the facilities for customer training and product demonstrations will help more food businesses in the region recognise and benefit from our world-class solutions.”
As an example of growing demand for these technologies, Tomra’s Compac brand has witnessed dramatic growth in South Africa in the last four years primarily because of the citrus industry investing in Spectrim grading technology. This is increasing productivity on pack-out of Class 1 fruit by an average of 12%
Compac’s Regional Director for Asia and South Africa, James Flocchini, commented: “Compac is installing a training/demo machine at the facility. This will provide for technology demonstrations and classroom training of new and existing customers to support the investments being made by citrus, avocado, apple, tomato and stone fruit packers.”
Tomra Food designs and manufactures sensor-based sorting machines and integrated post-harvest solutions for the food industry, using the world’s most advanced grading, sorting, peeling and analytical technology.
Over 8,000 units are installed at food growers, packers and processors around the world for fruits, nuts, vegetables, potato products, grains and seeds, dried fruit, meat and seafood. The company’s mission is to enable its customers to improve returns, gain operational efficiencies, and ensure a safe food supply via smart, useable technologies.
