The Elonen bakery started in Mänttä, Finland in 1966. After four decades of growth, the company is now located in the town of Jämsä in a building of about 5,000 square meters and employs 140 people. They produce many kinds of breads and bakery products including about twenty different kinds of cakes.

“We are the only producer in Finland able to produce cakes in this kind of quantity,” says Production Manager Kai Renlund and Sales and Marketing Director Jarmo Tolvanen. It is very challenging to make cakes. They have to be produced efficiently and the level of the hygiene has to be high. The products have to stay in good condition throughout the whole chain. This is where Elonen has made a large investment. An example is a machine in the line that uses an ultrasonic cutting feature for slicing the cakes. They started production last year in clean-air room which means, among other things, that the operators have to change their clothes every time they arrive in the room. The air in the room is totally changed every ten minutes. During the whole process, the room temperature has to stay below 5 degrees Celsius.

The Logistics Manager, Raimo Virolainen, who is also in charge of the purchasing packaging material and machinery states that the ECONOSEAL Spartan cartoner (manufactured by ECONOCORP, INC. in the United States) is easy to use and is well suited for the operation and the market. Elonen wanted to have a very unique carton construction. The Elonen Bakery goal was to have carton which protects the product, makes it easy for the packaging process, and is attractive and easy to their customers to handle. Seppo Syrjänen, the carton designer at the Tako Carton Plant, suggested the current carton style. The cakes are visible through the window and carton is easy to carry home. The material is Nova x-board which is made out of verging fibres. The package is opened via zipper and the product is easy to remove. If it so happens that there is some product not finished, it is easy to put it back in the carton and into the refrigerator to wait for the next use.

“Currently, we are packing cakes which are 750 or 800 grams each. This is normally for ten servings. The products have been well accepted by customers and the packaging makes the product easy to take from the shop. We will increase the amount of the cakes packed like this in the future”, says Production Manager Kai Renlund.

“With the help of M-Real’s Mechanical Packaging Manager, Jorma Jokinen, and Area Sales Manager, Rami Haapanen, we designed the new cake cartoning line. There were several changes made to the standard machine so that it would suit our company’s needs,” stated Virolainen. The Spartan opens the flat blank, forms special corners of the carton and closes the flaps with glue. The delicate and high quality cakes are fed manually. After the Spartan cartons the product, they are labelled and packed in corrugated sleeves.

Here we have yet another example of customizing an ECONOSEAL Spartan cartoner, while maintaining the simplicity and user friendly features of the equipment.

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