In the summer of 2026, Credin Portugal will install its newest bag filling line for Cake Mixes powder ingredients packaging. “With an already established partnership, the choice for this new line went once again to Arodo.”, Paulo Filipe, Director of Operations tells us.
With several bagging lines including palletizers from Arodo operating on different sites across Europe, their newest acquisition was designed to fit the new building in Freixeira, situated about 20 km above Lissabon, confirming Credins’ course towards technological excellency.
Road to full automation
Credin Portugal - The collaboration with Arodo started about 13 years ago, following an evaluation after a series of projects with different suppliers.
“2026 will be my thirtieth year at Credin”, Paulo Felipe, COO of Credin Portugal, tells us. Credin itself was a group of companies with factories in Portugal, Denmark, Sweden and Poland. “At that time, we were operating manually. After a few years we switched to a semi-automated system made in Portugal, but it remained very basic, with many issues along the way.
Things were changing in the 90s and early 2000s, so in our efforts to comply with the quality and food safety standards we needed more solid and better performing technology.
“Shortly after, in 2003, Credin was acquired by the Orkla Group. Arodo already had customers within the Orkla Group. After Credins’ acquisition by Orkla we organised visits to our different production sites to exchange best practices. During a visit at the Danish factory I witnessed several automated packaging machines in motion. One of them was from Arodo.”
Credin Poland – “With the same type of packaging line at our site in Poland, the decision to have Arodo machines installed in Portugal came naturally. Adding to that the flexibility with which Arodo adapts the machine to the existing factory layout, we can only say that we’re very satisfied with their equipment, having hardly any issues.” Paulo continues.
“Within Credin we decided that Arodo would become the preferred supplier for this type of equipment resulting in new orders for our sites in Denmark and Poland, this last one being our most advanced tech factory, with full packaging lines from Arodo, including a palletising system.”
Footprint
“In the course of 2019, 2020, we decided to invest in our Portugal plant including the modernization of two other production lines by Arodo equipment.
Within the Orkla Food Ingredients division, questions such as: “Why Arodo?”, ... “Why not?” were raised.” “My main reason: “Arodo’s footprint is smaller.” That’s how we convinced the decision makers of the group to give us the green light on this investment. Plus, we already had a lot of Arodo equipment, so we knew what we can expect. Not to mention, the Arodo After Sales is doing a great job! We have equipment working for over 10 years without any major issues, because solutions are offered quickly. Our close collaboration with their Area Sales Manager, Ulrich Knudsen adds to the level of professionalism.
For this years’ project - which could be described as the construction of a new factory inside an old one – Credin Portugal is building a complete production line for powder ingredients, including the silos for big ingredients, big bag stations for some medium-sized ingredients, with sack tip cabinets for bags, etc. It's a big production line for big volumes completely automated to handle our top selling products with the highest volume. The technology will be very similar to the one used at other Credin factories.
We are working with a powder handling and engineering company from Denmark: Mespo, who is collaborating closely with Arodo and who will supply the feeding and the mixing of the ingredients, the shifter, the conveyer etc. The packaging line itself will include a check weigher and a palletizer as well, following last years’ acquisition of our first automatic Arodo palletizer.
Attitude
“In my perspective, it's a success case. We are very happy to work with a company that we know from experience delivers on time and is very professional in all stages of our collaboration. From the design over the negotiation through the formalization of the project, timings are agreed upon.
Newest project of ARODO at Credin Portugal: Full filling line.
- Machine 1: Filling line with a sack applicator module with two integrated label applicators. A netto weighing system. Deaeration of the product with probes in the filling spout. The closing line consists of a double folding device with a gluing system.
- Machine 2: Bag transport to the palletiser has a metal detector and checkweigher.
- Machine 3: GRS palletiser with an automatic pallet magazine and integrated sheet dispenser.