Eckes-Granini Finland
The Eckes-Granini Finland Turku factory began operations on the present site in 1975. The factory is located in an industrialized area at Pansiontie 47 b, only a few hundred metres from the Baltic Sea and the Turku Archipelago. The historical roots of the company go back to 1867, when the company was founded in Turku. Production has been located in Turku throughout the company’s entire existence.
Eckes-Granini Finland Oy Ab is part of Europe’s leading juice business group Eckes-Granini, which has subsidiaries in several European countries. Founded in 1857, Eckes-Granini is a family business with headquarters still in Germany in the village of Nieder-Olm.
Eckes-Granini Finland produces liquid berry, fruit and vegetable products. The juice raw materials are brought to the factory in tank cars, containers or drums to the raw material warehouse, where the temperature is maintained at refrigerator temperature. The juice concentrates are transported by pipelines to the preparation area, where the mix concentrate and other added raw materials are administered by pumps into pipelines to the packing area. Each packing line has its own heat exchanger for pasteurizing the juice. Carton packages are treated with hydrogen peroxide prior to packaging so that the packages are cleansed, and the juice is dispensed in closed conditions. Packaged juices are delivered to the product warehouse, which is fully automated. Warehouse capacity is 9,500 pallet places.
Water utilized in the process comes from the Turku City water supply network. Product water is produced from this water by purifying it with particle filters and a UV unit and by removing oxygen from the water. Also, all of the cooling water used in the process comes from the Turku water supply network. Most of the water circulates in an internal closed loop. Process and sanitary waste water is discharged into the Turku City sewer system.
The last significant production change was the transfer of the cold chain production from Sievi to the Eckes-Granini Finland factory in Turku in 2017. For this reason, the whole cold production chain was built at the factory. For making the juice itself, a more efficient mixing system was acquired together with its horizontal tanks. Additionally, a new heat exchanger was acquired with a purpose and a capacity that correspond with our new products better than before. A new sanitization heat exchanger was acquired for the new packaging tanks and lines as well.
Eckes-Granini Finland has 129 employees (March 2018). Of these, an average of 75 people prepares and packages about 55 million litres of juice per year on nine different production lines. Production runs five days per week mainly as discontinuous three-shift work.
Most of the products are packaged in aseptic cartons. In addition to liquid carton packaging (0.2–1 litres), other packaging includes plastic bottles and canisters (0.5–10 litres) and glass bottles (0.5 litres). Eckes-Granini Finland is part of the Palpa and the Finnish Packaging Recycling RINKI Ltd recycling systems.
The company’s local strategic brands, Marli and Mehukatti, are Finland’s most well-known fruit beverage brands. Marli brand products have been produced in Turku since 1946 and Mehukatti products since 1977. In terms of the environment, the most recent change of significance to the product portfolio was the range of organic products put on the market. Eckes-Granini Finland produces organic Mehukatti juices packaged in 2 dl liquid carton packaging. A juice product can be called organic when the ingredients are produced organically. No artificial colour or sweeteners are allowed in organic products. Eckes-Granini Finland is subject to organic monitoring. The Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira monitors the production of organic food produced in Finland and, by means of audits, verifies organic implementation at every stage of the production chains. Organic production is regulated by the EU Organic Regulation.
Annual production | Approx. 55 million litres |
Products | Juices, juice concentrates, nectars, syrups, juice drinks, other drinks, berry soups, fruit purees, other fruit preparations |
Product packaging | Liquid carton packaging, PET bottles, glass bottles, HDPE canisters |
Personnel | 129 |
Certifications | EMAS – Eco-Management and Audit Scheme certification ISO 14001:2015 – Environmental management system certification FSC – Certification of the responsible use of forests (the certification of the packaging material manufacturers, Tetra Pak/Elopak) SGF – Fruit and vegetable juices industry quality, safety, authenticity and sustainability certification Luomu – Certification by the Finnish monitoring system for organic production IFS Food – Quality and food safety management system certification |
Quality Management System
The main factors that determine our daily efforts to achieve highest quality:
- We select our suppliers carefully and monitor their quality and environmental awareness through regular audits.
- A number of our raw material suppliers come under the voluntary monitoring system of Sure-Global-Fair (SGF), the international fruit and vegetable juices industry monitoring organization. Eckes-Granini Finland is also a member of the SGF. The purpose of the organization is to monitor the quality, safety, authenticity, sustainable development and fair competition of products.
- We constantly update our HACCP system (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points). The system ensures a high-quality food production chain through the analysis of all of the critical points.
- We monitor the entire production process with a highly automated in-process control system. Microbiological controls done in the quality assurance laboratory ensure a high level of hygiene.
- We have a comprehensive hygiene program for production equipment.
- We ensure product traceability using well-established computerized systems and we guarantee that every product leaving the Eckes-Granini Finland factory can be traced back to individual raw materials and packaging.
- We apply a two-part audit strategy in compliance with international standards: In addition to internal audits, we ensure our high quality with the external IFS certification, for which we have constantly received a “Higher Level” result. IFS (International Food Standard) is the food quality and safety assessment standard commonly used in Europe.