Kenosha Beef, parent company of Birchwood Foods, and supplier to large food distributors (such as Sysco), QSRs, and the private-label markets, depends upon innovative equipment and systems capable of keeping its plants operating efficiently.

Club stores, superstores, grocery stores, convenience stores, and quick-service restaurants continue to expand their offerings of case-ready meats, refrigerated entrees, ethnic foods, and fresh and frozen meats. Category sales are expected to continue to rise as consumers increasingly demand variety and convenience. Kenosha Beef must be very responsive to distributor packing, shipping, and marking requirements for bar coding that warehouses and distributors demand.

The company recently acquired a digital case-printing system -- the Optimizer by Iconotech -- to increase box barcode printing efficiency and reduce labor costs. An added incentive came from its major food distribution customer's stipulation that all outer shipping containers bear the Unified Code Council-compliant Shipping Container Code on at least two sides. In the past, workers manually applied pressure-sensitive labels, positioned irregularly, at a cost of .055 cents each. Inaccurate placement of hand-applied labels often interferes with efficient automatic scanning upon delivery.

The digital case-printing program allows Kenosha to provide consistent in-spec bar codes. It also saves on the cost of labels and labor, reduces preprinted case inventories, and is completely flexible to production requirements.

For information on another Kenosha product, the Economizer, click here.