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moba in 2018: Continuous growth

An interview with Managing Director Michiel Peters

Moba continued its structural growth in 2018. This year, its annual turnover exceeded the limit of 200 million euros for the first time in the company's 71-year history. The exact meaning of this number for Moba and our customers is explained by our Managing Director, Michiel Peters. He looks back at success year 2018 and gives a sneak peak of what’s in store for Moba in the future.


Moba has taken important steps in 2018, according to Michiel. The choice to further perfect the configure-to-order process is paramount to this. While engineer-to-order involves making a new design for each individual order, configure-to-order involves composing each order from existing blocks. The goal is to meet customer quality demands by limiting the order-specific engineering effort. Michiel sees a lot of benefits in this process: “When a product is made for the first time, it will not be perfect. Every time you recreate the same product, the process will improve and speed up. The production steps are optimized with embedded quality control and everyone knows exactly what they have to do. Because of this, we were able to combine larger projects with the highest possible quality and on top of that fewer risks and shorter delivery times. Next to that, specific requests will be engineered to the exact customer specifications by a specialised department.”

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In China and India the grading of eggs is still being done manually to a large extend. They are now taking the first steps towards automation. Our expectation is that Moba will continue to grow in these emerging markets in the following years.

Worldwide

Moba’s continuous growth is also taking place in emerging markets, especially in Latin America, where Moba’s business doubled in 2018. And Moba experiences growth in more countries. “In China and India the grading of eggs is still being done manually to a large extent. They are now taking the first steps towards automation. Our expectation is that Moba will continue to grow in these emerging markets in the following years.”


Michiel continues: “We are also very busy in Japan and Australia. These countries are taking huge steps towards total automation. For example, case packing is now booming business there.”

As the world’s leading manufacturer of grading, packing and processing equipment in the egg industry, it is important to stay close to all of our customers. To support its growth in the Middle East market, Moba opened the Moba Middle East FZCO office in Dubai, UAE, in 2018.

2018 also marks the start of the renovation of Moba’s headquarters in Barneveld. The building needed freshening up, according to Michiel. “This renovation will be a small expansion but mostly a modernisation in order to optimize our internal processes and to give our high-tech company the appearance it deserves. Barneveld is the world center of the egg grading industry. Amazing, right? Yet many people, even in Barneveld, do not even know what it is we do here. We change that by communicating more. And the renovation will help in this process.”

The Moba Group and Pelbo - a leading and innovative manufacturer of equipment for the egg breaking and processing market - joined forces in 2016. That decision was a profitable one. Just like Moba, Pelbo experienced growth in 2018. Because of this cooperation, Moba has a significant share in the egg breaking and processing market. And Pelbo is given the opportunity to expand their customer base around the globe.

Nowadays it is still the case that operators have to walk around their plant and operate every machine separately. We are working on a dashboard in which operators can diagnose and control every machine.

Innovate
Of course, an annual turnover of 200 million euros is a great milestone, but the number is not the most significant part”, explains Michiel, who started at Moba in 2014. “Ten years ago, the annual turnover was about 100 million euros; in 2018, the limit of 200 million euros was exceeded for the first time. And hopefully we will reach 300 million euros in ten years’ time. This simply means we are a solid company with structural growth. And we want to continue this growth in the future in order to stay on top of the egg market. That can only happen if we continue to innovate. Investing in R&D, both internally as well by creating partnerships is an essential part of our company strategy."

Innovation does not only mean future developments but also past innovations that are continuously being adjusted to become even better products. Michiel explains: “A great example is the Omnia PX700. This machine has been well received by the market. We want to continuously adapt the machine to customer feedback. The same applies to the MR12. Sale of robotics is going fast. Total automation is the future and our customers are taking steps towards this. iMoba is, of course, a product in development. Over a hundred machines are now connected. We want to expand this number in the future. iMoba is a great tool to help customers get the most out of their business. More iMoba modules will become available so that customers will be able to choose tools and data that is important for them.”

Bright future
How will the future of the egg industry change in 2019 and thereafter? Michiel believes that the next step is to ensure that the different systems can communicate with each other. “Nowadays it is still the case that operators have to walk around their plant and operate every machine separately. We are working on a dashboard in which operators can diagnose and control every machine. This will make it so much easier for customers to change the different packages for the eggs, for example. That is now a very complex process, but when operators can adjust their equipment with one dashboard that will be of huge value and save time and money.” Michiel compares the situation in the packing station with a very complex car. “Now it is like the customer is driving a car with multiple wheels, mirrors and more than one steering wheel. We want to give them one dashboard and one clear steering wheel, the best mirrors and wheels so they can avoid obstacles smoothly and operate the machine as easily as possible.”

If we continue to innovate and provide our customers with the best service, I believe that Moba’s future looks very bright.

An important future development is automatic shell strength detection. Moba developed this by means of a completely new acoustic analysis that can be combined with crack detection. Knowing how strong the eggshell is can have various benefits for Moba’s customers. Benefits they might not even be aware of, according to Michiel: “Of course, a weaker eggshell has a higher risk of breakage. And a broken egg isn’t as profitable as a whole egg. But you can also think of different scenario’s where customers need to know the strength of the eggshell. We have developed the technology, now the market needs to experiment with that and explore the many ways in which they can use this to their advantage. That is a journey we have to take together. The same can be said about print detection. Our egg inspector has the ability to recognize the pink print on the eggs. The technology is ready, it is now up to the customers to explore this technology and use it to their advantage.”

Michiel doesn’t see any reason why 2019 shouldn’t be another excellent year for Moba: “The world population is growing steadily from 7 to 11 billion people in the coming decades. All those people have to eat. The egg is an affordable source of protein, minerals and vitamins. This means that more eggs will be sold in the future. On top of the emerging markets in China, India and Latin America. If we continue to innovate and provide our customers with the best service, I believe that Moba’s future looks very bright.”

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