Production of Ready-to-Eat Meals and Preprocessed Ingredients for School Meal Sites
Total Floor Area of 20,354㎡
Fully Automated System Based on Smart Factory Technology
Samsung Welstory has completed the construction of a 'Central Kitchen' (CK) with a fully automated production line in Asan, Chungnam, and is set to strengthen its competitiveness in the group catering business.
Jung Haerin, President of Samsung Welstory (sixth from the right), and other officials are cutting the ribbon at the Central Kitchen completion ceremony. [Photo by Samsung Welstory]
Samsung Welstory announced on the 3rd that it recently held a completion ceremony for the Central Kitchen in the Yeomchi General Industrial Complex in Asan, with a total floor area of 20,354㎡ (approximately 6,157 pyeong).
The Central Kitchen is a centralized cooking facility that preprocesses, cooks, or semi-processes large quantities of ingredients for supply. Through the Central Kitchen, Samsung Welstory will produce and supply high-quality ready meals and preprocessed ingredients to group catering sites nationwide.
Samsung Welstory's Central Kitchen is designed as a smart factory with state-of-the-art food manufacturing equipment, automating all processes from preprocessing to cooking, packaging, and sorting.
All production processes, including preprocessing of ingredients used in major ready meals such as salads, sandwiches, and gimbap, as well as key processes for gimbap like steaming and product packaging and quality inspection, are carried out automatically to prevent cross-contamination caused by human intervention and to produce fresh products within a short time.
Additionally, by applying advanced automated sorting and stacking systems for the first time in the domestic food manufacturing industry, Samsung Welstory plans to quickly deliver ready meals directly, providing customers with menu items of quality similar to freshly made handmade products.
According to Samsung Welstory, the demand for ready meals at company-operated cafeterias nationwide has increased by 20% compared to the previous year, reflecting a recent shift in cafeteria users' eating habits toward ready meals.
Samsung Welstory has established a strategy to internalize the technology to develop and produce high-quality ready meals through the Central Kitchen in response to these changes in consumer markets, thereby strengthening its competitiveness. The company also plans to expand the production of new products reflecting consumer trends annually to secure a competitive edge within the industry.
Jung Hae-rin, President of Samsung Welstory, said, "Based on the know-how accumulated over many years in group catering and food ingredient distribution businesses, we will continuously develop customer-tailored products to strengthen our business competitiveness."
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