The latest news, trends, analysis, interviews and podcasts from the global food and beverage industry

It is often said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. And chocolate fans can confirm that a fascination for cocoa products usually leads to them being savoured on the spot. This very passion inspired the founder of the ‘Louit’ chocolate factory, who was, at the time, in love. Today, the company – now known as Atlantic Štark – produces an impressive range of chocolates, biscuits and cookies in Belgrade, Serbia, supported by cutting-edge automation technology from Schubert.

The 2000 film Chocolat tells the tale of a young woman who charms a small French village with her chocolaterie. Yet, 78 years earlier, a real-life, reversed tale unfolded in Zemun, now part of Serbia. After World War I, a French soldier settled in Serbia for love – and not just in the romantic sense. He falls for a woman called Theresa, as well as for the local chocolate recipe, which he begins to make himself and successfully sells in a small café.

In doing so, he laid the foundation for the ‘Louit’ chocolate factory, later renamed ‘La Cigogna,' which grew steadily through mergers and changed its name several times – from Soko Štark in the 1960s to Atlantic Štark since 2020, after the Croatian Atlantic Grupa food group had acquired the company in 2010.

With such a colourful history, it is hardly surprising that Štark’s portfolio – the shortened company name – also became more and more diverse over time. In addition to chocolate, such as the nationally renowned Najlepše želje – Serbian for ‘best wishes’ – the company produces biscuits and savoury snacks such as peanut flips.

For decades, consumers have also been delighted by a chocolate-covered marshmallow-type dessert treat shaped like a banana. The individually flow-wrapped ‘Bananica’ comes in boxes of different quantities. Equally popular is ‘Citro,’ a chocolate-coated jelly confection with a lemon or orange flavour, which is also sold in flowpacks and boxes.

The packaging processes, which the manufacturer partly automated 20 years ago, are as complex as you would expect. Many of them, including cartoning, were still carried out manually. However, as so often in the company’s history, a change was on the horizon after two decades, as the existing packaging line was leading to costly bottlenecks in final packaging. As the portfolio grew, a more efficient and flexible solution was needed that would continue to ensure high performance and efficient packaging. However, the catch was that the solution had to be up and running in as little as three weeks in order to resume production as quickly as possible. So how to proceed – and with whom?

A chicken pâté called Argeta inspired the decisive idea. The product, packaged in metal tins, had been part of the portfolio years ago and Atlantic Droga Kolinska in Slovenia and Bosnia had successfully packaged it with two TLM packaging machines from Schubert.

“We had vivid memories of Schubert’s commitment and experience,” said Marko Abramović, managing director at Atlantic Štark. “We were keen to work with Schubert again to automate our Bananica and Citro lines. So we immediately contacted the experts in 2023.”

A visit to Belgrade

Fast forward to November 2024. In the Atlantic Štark production hall, a group of people are assembled at a brand-new, fully automated packaging line. The comprehensive system, which draws everyone’s attention, was installed by Schubert in just three weeks. It was, to say the least, an ambitious undertaking that initially brought together representatives from Atlantic Štark and Gerhard Schubert first at the same table and later in the production halls themselves in order to meet the very tight deadline. The result is an impressive one and the mood at the line is enthusiastic.

Four seamlessly connected machines, from primary to tertiary packaging, fit into the space-constrained premises – with the option of integrating tray packaging technology and an additional case packer in the long term. Together with Ralf and Gerald Schubert, Marko Abramović, project manager Nenad Ivanović, head of corporate investments Nemanja Mašić, and other managers from production and maintenance are inspecting the line, exchanging ideas and observing the various processes with excitement. Flow-wrapping, cartoning, end-of-line packaging – everything runs smoothly.

Not surprisingly, Schubert’s packaging line, which includes a TLM Flowpacker with two Flowmoduls, two TLM cartoners and a TLM lightline case packer, also features state-of-the-art pick and place robots.

Nenad Ivanović commented: "We didn’t have the robots before. Instead, we had a mechanical feeding system with inherent technical limitations. Now we can work faster and more accurately. Bottlenecks in the packaging process are a thing of the past." The robotic arms, which tirelessly place the marshmallow-like bananas and jelly lemons from the line’s large feed conveyor into the Flowmodul’s infeed, prove this beyond a doubt.

Twelve F4 robots gently pick up the chocolate products arranged in 19 tracks – precisely as the pressure-sensitive Bananica and Citro require – and place them just as carefully into the feed chains of the two Flowmoduls, Schubert’s flow-wrapping machines. Here, Schubert shows its strength in image processing: scanners optically capture the chocolate products and check whether they meet the predefined values. Products that do not meet specifications or that show quality defects are not accepted.

Eye-catching products

The flowpack pouches, which the Flowmodul then quickly and precisely forms around the products, are brightly coloured in red and orange. The high-performance line reliably packs two times 425 Bananica products per minute – this is certainly one of the reasons for the appreciative nods that can be seen throughout the group. All participants turn with interest to the two cartoners that are making the processes in Belgrade more flexible.

Štark markets its Bananica in boxes of five, ten, 16, 24 and 40 products – up to five layers are possible. What makes this so remarkable is that the boxes of five, ten and 16 products are also placed in differently configured transport packaging. As a result, the company has to proceed multilaterally. The cartoners can handle a total of seven formats with filling quantities ranging from five to 40 units. Schubert developed new flat blanks for all boxes, enabling Štark to save on materials.

“The two cartoners and the case packer from Schubert give us the flexibility that was lacking on the previous packaging line – and enable us to experiment with other formats in the long term,” explained Nemanja Mašić, who views the investment in a positive light. “Thanks to the clear, accessible layout, operation, cleaning and maintenance can be done in no time at all. The resources we made available for the line and for in-depth training in Crailsheim are definitely paying off.”

And it doesn’t stop there. During the three weeks in Belgrade, as well as before, the two partners worked together as flexibly as the components within the packaging line. “The Schubert team was always proactively reaching out to us with suggestions for improving the hall layout and giving tips for implementation. Their enthusiasm and commitment convinced us that we were working with the right partner,” highlighted Mašić. “The space-saving hall layout with four machines alone has significantly improved the functionality and capacity of our production line. Efficiencies of 97% per machine speak for themselves.”

Last stop: the case packer

The group has now gathered around the TLM lightline case packer and is waiting with bated breath for the first filled and closed boxes. It will soon be rolling off the line, ready for the next stage of its journey to bulk buyers and food retailers. The case packer is located directly behind the first cartoner, which packs the smaller boxes of five, ten and 16. These are fed into the machine on the infeed conveyor, before a grouping chain arranges them in an upright position.

Schubert wouldn’t be Schubert if another process wasn’t running in parallel. The case packer simultaneously denests flat blanks and erects them into carton trays using an A3 erector. A vacuum transport system takes them to the filling position, where Schubert robotics once again catch the eye of the guests. The technology removes the desired quantity of grouped products and places them accurately into the provided carton trays. In a further step, the case packer takes lid blanks from the stack, applies glue, folds and glues them around the filled trays – and the shelf-ready packaging is ready to go.

With so much activity in and around the machine, appetites are roused. At the end of the exciting tour, the guests had an opportunity to sample Bananica and Citro for themselves. What did they think? This remains a secret. Managing director Abramović’s conclusion, however, is perfectly clear: “Products like Bananica and Citro set us apart. They represent heritage and history. Thanks to high-performance, flexible automation, we can carry on this tradition – thanks in no small part to the additional format and capacity options that are now available to us as a result.”

Learn more at:

Homepage: www.schubert.group

Facebook: www.facebook.com/GerhardSchubertGmbh

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/gerhardschubertgmbhverpackungsmaschinen