PET Food Processing - September 2018 - 20

PLANT PROFILE

to pet food processing, the extruder systems include a
Wenger X-165 single screw, two Wenger X-185 single
screws, a Wenger C2TX twin screw and an Extru-Tech
E750 single screw. Five dryers, two from Extru-Tech, a
Wenger Series VI and two Wenger Series VII plus five
Extru-Tech vertical coolers that cool the products before material handling systems from HorizonPSI, AirLanco and MPE Chicago deliver them to the Wenger
and Extru-Tech enrobing systems and on to one of 13
packaging lines: four from Thiele, three from Parsons,
two from JEM, a Roberts C1500 SUP rollstock line and a
PSG-LEE SUP pre-made line.
The common denominator among all four C.J. Foods
extrusion facilities from an equipment perspective is
each location has the ability to produce and package
anything that the company makes today for 35 different companies. Although each location has the ability to
produce all the diets, it doesn't mean that each location
does produce every diet. A key difference from location to location starts with certifications. One location
(Baxter Springs) can produce bovine diets, while three
of the locations are certified as "Bovine Free" facilities.
Additionally, two locations are Taiwan certified and two
locations are organic certified.
Another difference from plant to plant is the minimum order requirement. Each facility has a minimum
order quantity and they incrementally get larger as the
extruders get bigger. "Because of different certification requirements, we have two customers that we use
all four facilities every month to produce 100% of their
product," Krehbiel explains. "We don't use all four facilities for capacity in that regard. We use all four facilities
because their whole product portfolio requires something from every one of our facilities."
There are a lot of packaging similarities between the
sites. "We can blend inclusions into finished kibble prior
to packaging in all of our sites," says Tim Friesel, plant site
director. "The larger extruders all have the downstream
packaging capabilities to fill both big bags, 10 lbs. and up,
and small bags, 0.8 kg. to 8 lbs. Three of the four large extruders are fully automated to hang, fill, seal, bundle and
palletize the small-bag, finished goods. For the big bags,
the automated packaging lines can fill, seal and palletize
them. Baxter Springs has a semi-automated packaging
line and BP10, the original Pawnee City facility, produces
a larger number of smaller-volume runs which means
more changeovers per day so the packaging process
in that plant is typically fairly manual. With that many
changeovers, it's quicker to just change a bag manually."

People as a priority
C.J. Foods invests in an immense amount of sophisticated equipment to produce hundreds of millions of

PET FOOD PROCESSING | September 2018 | www.petfoodprocessing.net

Raw materials are automatically fed to the preconditioner in a
room that is separate from the extruder.
pounds of extruded pet food and treats per year but it's
clear when speaking with the company's management
team and visiting the processing facilities that their team
membersare the secret ingredient to C.J. Foods' recipe
for success. The company's priorities are posted on
doors, windows, walls and handed out on small cards:
safety, people, courage, team and speed.
With nearly 500 team members spread across the six
processing facilities and a corporate office in Kansas
City, recruiting is a challenge. The company's plants are
located in low-density population areas that all have
low un-employment rates in the surrounding counties.
President of C.J. Foods Elliott Haverlack is driving the
focus on people and keeping the purpose they pursue

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PET Food Processing - September 2018

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