Handling Xtreme E3 live!
Pet food – labor vs automation

In Episode 3 of our Handling Xtreme series, we dive into the always changing pet food market. Together with our partner CAMA, we put labor vs. automation to the test under real production pressure.

Can automation take over where manual work struggles and keep pace with today’s demand for speed and variety?

The pet food industry is evolving rapidly. Labor shortages and rising costs make quality staffing a challenge. At the same time, the humanization of pet food drives demand for smaller portions, more flavors, and complex variety packs – all at ever-higher production speeds.

This humanization trend reflects changing attitudes toward pets and greater focus on animal welface, making high-quality ingredients, packaging, and production processes more important than ever.

Our solutions tackle these challenges, proving the value of automation:

Producing variety packs requires careful planning. Each flavor is filled separately, but the packaging machine needs all flavors ready at the same time. Lan’s special storage trays provide the necessary buffering, allowing multiple flavors to be available at the case packer without slowing production.

Seamless integration between the filler and case packer ensures that these flavors are combined into a single box quickly, reliably, and efficiently.