Family business Dacomex has decided to invest in the future with a brand-new production line from Eqraft, as well as Symach palletisers and a Modesta dust extraction solution.

At this moment, Dacomex is laying the groundwork for an extension of their factory in Sint-Maartensdijk, a small town in the south of the Netherlands. With their new production line, the onion exporter will be able to double their capacity and do an even better job at providing their international customers with a high-quality product. They chose Eqraft as the main contractor for their expansion plans, allowing the machine builder to supply various roller sorters, onion toppers, inspection rooms, evenflows, tipping bunkers, Baxmatics and belts. Eqraft also takes care of the overall coordination, while Symach supplies palletising and wrapping solutions. Modesta makes sure the new factory hall’s dust extraction is in order: they offer a smart solution for the disposal of residual flows and use windsifting to enable a cleaner product. Through a combination of blowing and extracting, onion skins are removed and disposed of instantly. This creates a cleaner, safer and healthier working environment and a well-functioning processing line.

Highs and lows

In cooperation with local growers, Dacomex sorts, packs, and exports onions all over the world. Ever since its establishment in 1961, the company has been growing steadily. Dacomex has been one of the largest onion exporters in The Netherlands for decades and is still being managed by the same family: Maarten van Damme, their current sales director, is a fourth-generation entrepreneur. When their current production line reached its maximum capacity, the company decided to expand – after careful consideration, of course. 

“Being able to handle the peaks in autumn better was the main consideration when deciding to expand their production capacity,” explains Rutger Keurhorst, director commerce of Eqraft. Often times, companies like Dacomex experience highs and lows throughout the year, depending on clients’ demand and on the season. Hiring extra staff during production peaks doesn’t solve that problem, because there’s no work for them when things slow down. Investing in an automated production line is a more logical and efficient solution: the new installation can easily be set to a higher or lower speed when needed, allowing the factory to be more flexible and reduce production costs.

Maarten van Damme (sales manager Dacomex; top left) and Nico Bredenhoff (project manager Eqraft; bottom right) at the construction site of the new Dacomex production hall in Sint-Maartensdijk.

Comprehensive approach

“We’re very pleased with this project: Dacomex’s new hall has to be built from scratch and it’s our job to make sure the production line will be put into operation with as little downtime as possible. That’s a great challenge,” says Nico Bredenhoff, project manager at Eqraft. He’s also taking on a coordinating role, ensuring that communication between all parties involved runs smoothly and coming up with useful additions about the overall end result. That way, he ensures perfect integration with other parts of the production chain and suppliers of installation technology, amongst others. It’s in line with the comprehensive approach that Eqraft is pursuing: instead of just delivering machines, they also fulfil a consultant role.

This way of working is also what convinced Dacomex, tells Maarten van Damme, sales manager and co-owner: “Eqraft’s years of experience within the onion sector does not only lead to high quality machines, but also ensures that they can take care of the entire process from beginning to end.” For that same reason, he chose an extraction solution from Modesta. Furthermore, Dacomex was already using Symach machines and was satisfied with the quality and service, so they opted for their palletisers again.

The collaboration with the other Onion Tech Alliance members is an important part of Eqraft’s comprehensive strategy. OTA is a partnership of specialists in the onion processing industry: Eqraft, Modesta and Symach. Together, they provide an integral project approach in which each company contributes within its own specialism: from engineering and project management to sorting, dust extracting, weighing, packing, palletising and wrapping. Nico: “Because we are well attuned to each other, the client only has to deal with one project manager. That saves them a lot of valuable time.”