Pet food rollercoaster

Under the stewardship of Dr Jürgen Wigger and his sister Ulrike Petershagen, Bewital petfood has developed into a modern manufacturer of dog and cat food in Germany. "Here in Münsterland, my father began manufacturing rearing feed for young livestock back in 1963," says Dr Jürgen Wigger. "Over the last few years we have built the company up step by step and specialised in dog and cat food that contains a large quantity of fresh meat."

Since 2015 Bewital has been producing both dry and moist food in its own plant on the company's premises. Speciality retailers are thus offered a feeding concept in which the two assortments are coordinated to one another. As moist food has become a significant sales driver, the need for further production facilities has grown quickly. The newly constructed logistics centre creates new possibilities in this regard: while warehousing was previously spread across the company site, the high bay warehouse has now become the pivotal point for all finished products.
Almost in the manner of a roller­coaster, all pallets are stored and removed automatically here on 15 levels. This creates space that Bewital is using to expand its moist food production. "Moist food has become a very important product segment for us; the majority of our growth in recent years has been attributable to this," explains Dr Jürgen Wigger. The high bay warehouse has room for over 13 000 pallets and four times this quantity can be stored or removed per hour. At full capacity, the daily amount of moist food processed is expected to increase more than twofold. "We can thus offer our retail partners optimal logistics solutions and delivery capability," says Dr Jürgen Wigger.

At the heart of dry food production is extrusion technology, which the company introduced at an early stage to respond to the intensifying customer demand for a high proportion of fresh meat in the food. While conventional extruders were originally developed for the processing of meal, investment in this new manufacturing process permits much higher quantities of fresh meat, and also maximum control and influence over the quality of the meat. It permits the inclusion of a proportion of up to 85 per cent fresh meat in dry food. The products are gently cooked in steam in the process, ensuring that many natural constituents and vitamins are retained along with the meat flavour. "Saying that the ingredients are what matters isn't just an advertising slogan…