Krüger & Salecker decided to join the Natural Products Expo West virtually this year. The American fair that usually opens the doors in Anaheim, CA put their event on an online platform. The Covid-19 crisis did not allow for a physical event this year. But the organizers tried to offer every aspect of a physical tradeshow.

Exhibitors could set up their booths with videos, documents, product descriptions and special trade show discounts. Attendees could navigate over the platform looking for exhibitors, products, and other attendees and sending connection requests or set up video calls.

Krüger & Salecker chose to reuse the videos in form of machine demonstrations, webinars, as well as portfolio presentations to draw attention to their virtual booth. A special video was shot to use as a header of the booth. The focus was cast on the cereal molding machine GFT and its gentle processing of the ingredients. They stay intact and are not damaged in any way.

For the Natural Products Expo, Krüger & Salecker continued their line of interviews with customers. Teresa Humrichouser and Matt Figley of Primary Colors were happy to be an interview partner to the managing directors Sören and Tammo Bettex. They talked about the difficulties Teresa has met when moving her production from hand-made to machine-made.

Looking back to the first virtual fair the Biofach eSpecial, Krüger & Salecker concluded that the concept of Biofach showed more success for the individual exhibitor. The opportunity to draw attention to ourselves using all kinds of video formats was missed dearly during Natural Products Expo, even though the platform will be available until the end of the year.

Virtual events will continue to be part of marketing at Krüger & Salecker as long as the corona pandemic makes face-to-face meetings difficult. The summer is looking promising for in-person meetings and we can only hope that the positive trend of decreasing infection numbers continues into autumn to make tradeshows and traveling safe again.

Why dates?

Dates are high in natural sugar, which makes them perfect as a sugar alternative. In addition, date bars do not have to be laboriously processed, they are classified as raw snacks. What is of great importance in the food industry is that dates fall under the stored fruits so that they have a long shelf life.

Dates as a base

The date comes from the Middle East and North Africa. Dates grow on date palms. They are very nutritious and sweet. Their colors vary from red to black. They are primarily grown in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Tunisia. The quality varies with the different origins. While the Siwa and Bahir date are often found in Egypt, Tunisia focuses on the Deglet Noor, which is of very high quality.

The basis for date recipes are obviously dates. However, these must first be processed into a paste. A meat grinder from the meat industry will help. The consistency of the date mass can be influenced with different mincing sizes.

The date mix can be processed further with a conventional bakery kneader. For example, nuts, seeds or powder can be added to achieve different flavors and the date bar can be enriched with proteins and other additives.

Recipe example

Ingredients:

• 600g date paste
• 211g chopped pecan nuts
• 75g deoiled cocoa powder
• 75g apple juice
• 40g oatmeal

Mixing instruction:

• Mix the date paste with the oats and cocoa powder
• Fold in the apple juice
• Add the pecan nuts
• Fill into the MFT0100 molding machine

A few more pieces of advice

It is an advantage to look for a supplier who delivers consistent quality in order to avoid production difficulties. The meat grinder should also process the dates as gently as possible to avoid oiling them out. Ultimately, the mix should not be heated in order not to destroy the valuable components of the date. Because heat turns the date into pure fructose.

Krüger & Salecker exhibited successfully at Biofach eSpecial. It was the first virtual tradeshow in the more than 75-year history of the German company. In the past, sales were very much focused on trade fairs. Because of the corona crisis, these could not be carried out as usual. Despite the current situation, digital events offer the opportunity to make new contacts and talk to old ones again.

Krüger & Salecker has come up with quite a few ideas for the digital format. The machine demonstrations, which otherwise caused visitors to pause at trade shows, were now recorded before the fair and made available as a video. A total of three films were shot to inform the audience about the individual machines.

Another format was webinars, which took up target group-specific topics that are related to the individual machines. Krüger & Salecker for example observed that muesli bar manufacturers are intensively addressing the issue of reducing sugar. Here, too, a total of three topics were addressed in the form of videos.

Then two more interviews with customers were carried out. For this purpose, the managing directors Tammo and Sören Bettex sat down with the managing directors of the German companies Gipfelpuls and Fickenschers Backhaus to talk about topics that move them in their daily work.

After each video broadcast, there was a live conversation in which viewers were invited to ask questions. This resulted in very interesting conversations and discussions virtually. Overall, the feedback from the audience was very positive, as was the way Krüger & Salecker presented itself on the platform.

Virtual events will continue to be part of marketing at Krüger & Salecker as long as the corona pandemic makes face-to-face meetings difficult. Biofach eSpecial was only a first step. Next, the company has planned to participate in the Natural Products Expo Virtual and is already noticing that the format is a little different. In addition, the time difference to California poses a completely different challenge.

Since 2003 K&S was successfully lead by Jörg Maskow. Now he handed over the company to new hands.

Since 31^st July, 2020 Sören and Tammo Bettex are at the head of Krüger and Salecker. The two cousins are sharing the operative responsibility: Tammo Bettex is responsible for the production and ancillary areas which he already led over the past seven years as Technical Director. Sören Bettex is taking over responsibility for commercial issues including sales, administration and strategic development of the enterprise. Both are eager to continuously deliver first class products and services to all customers and business partners – together with the whole team of K&S.

You will find further updates on this matter shortly. At the latest during your next contact with the K&S team.

Find our press release here.

Healthy snacks with molding machines by Kruger & Salecker