Proseal's success is effectively sealed: it is customary with company anniversaries to give an indication of a business's success through a series of impressive statistics.

SO AS PROSEAL CELEBRATES the ten years that have seen it evolve into the UK's leading manufacturer of heat-sealing machinery and tooling, here is a brief taste of the company by numbers: from an original staff of 5 in 1998, today Proseal employs over 90 people at its headquarters in Adlington, near Macclesfield; the company moved to these purpose-designed facilities in 2002 and has since expanded further with the opening of a second building in 2006, giving Proseal a total factory space of some 20,000 square feet; the company has enjoyed year on year growth of around 20% and its installed base of state-of-the-art heat-sealing equipment is now in excess of 2,000.

Of course, a truly successful business comprises much more than a good set of figures. And one of the fundamental reasons for Proseal's enduring success over the past ten years has been the quality and technical innovation of the equipment it supplies.

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Underpinning Proseal technology is an emphasis on flexibility, reliability, user-friendliness, hygiene and low maintenance. A keyword in all the company's new product development is reliability. With fewer components and robust construction, Proseal tray sealers are both easy to use and to maintain. The result is saved time and preserved profit in the two areas that are the biggest causes of downtime: changeovers and breakdown.

The same logic is applied to design, where visibility and ease of access are prioritised. Proseal recognises that, although space is at a premium in busy food production environments, generally vertical space is not fully utilised. To this end, Proseal machines are built upwards to free horizontal space for other uses.

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An additional advantage of this system is that the electrical controls for each machine are housed above the sealing space, enabling fast, easy and safe access for cleaning. Proseal's pioneering 'Auto Tool' facility enables tool changes to take place in a matter of seconds, helping to meet the need for both speed and flexibility on tray sealing lines.

Twin lane systems are another solution available to maximise throughput.

All Proseal's heat sealing machines offer a range of options to meet the particular requirements of each application. For example, machines can be specified with a 'free flow' gas flush to provide extended product shelf life. One of the advantages of the Proseal gas flushing system is that it does not need to pull a vacuum before flushing, and by removing one of the component parts of the sealing cycle, much higher speeds can be achieved.

The results of these innovations can be seen in the wide range of tray-sealers that Proseal offers to meet the varying and ever-changing needs of the food market: from the entry-level semi-automatic PR30, with its compact design and easy portability, through the recently-introduced fully automatic GT1 and GT2, the latter the company's faster ever tray sealer with a top speed of up to 90 packs per minute, to the AP60 high throughput modular linear tray sealing system with the flexibility to be incorporated into a fully automated turnkey production line.

Another recent first for the company has been the introduction of its SP30 and SP60 sandwich packing systems for the de-nesting, erecting and sealing of cardboard sandwich skillets.

Yet this technical innovation is still only half of the Proseal success story. For one of the most striking aspects of the Proseal business is the strong sense of community that exists among the company's personnel. The spirit of teamwork and togetherness is evident to any visitor to the company's Adlington headquarters; it is encapsulated in the company's literature and on its website by the Fact that employees are mentioned by name.

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"A company is only as good as the people it employs," explains Steve Malone, one of Proseal's founding directors. "The Proseal culture of openness and empowerment, together with the commitment to our community of loyal team members, is our greatest strength. Our shared goal is to provide the food sector with the finest products and after sales support possible."

Or as Proseal's own mission statement puts it, the company's aim is "to take pride, not only in producing a range of high quality, efficient, cost-effective machines, but also in providing a service that surpasses even our customers' expectations."

With this commitment to excellence in customer service comes the wide-ranging expertise and market knowledge that enables the company to effectively handle any type of food packing and sealing project. Notable recent successes include an

AP60-500 tray sealing system for a new range of ready meals at Penguin Foods UK and the design and installation of a bespoke tray packing system for fresh fruit salad at a major fruit processing factory.

The drive for convenience has already opened up many market sectors for tray sealers, including ready meals, fresh meat and poultry, fresh fruit and ready-to-eat salads, and new challenges continue to emerge. "New product development in the food industry is continuing at a fast pace," confirms Rob Hargreaves, Proseal cofounder and director. "This will further expand the sizes and variety of products packed in trays."

One example he cites is fresh meat. While trays have long been used for individual cuts such as pork chops or chicken fillets, they are also now in demand for the packing of larger heavy products, such as whole chickens. On-the-move snacks are another growth area and the continuing sophistication in ready meal recipes is also impacting on tray designs.

As well as new tray designs, there is a trend towards the use of new materials. While the 1990s saw a steady drive in the use of CPET as the favoured material for trays, today the market is moving back towards the use of board.

While continuing to respond to changing demands in the UK, Proseal is also starting to deliver its solutions to the global market. The UK may be the 'pioneer' of ready meals and convenience foods in Europe, but these trends are becoming more marked in mainland Europe, particularly the demand for pre-packed product, and Proseal already has a number of installations on the continent.

Proseal set out to become 'an innovative and pioneering organisation within the fast paced food industry'. In ten years it is clear that not only has this objective been achieved, the innovation and pioneering is set to continue for many more years to come.

Contact Proseal UK Ltd. on tel 01625 856600 or visit www.proseal.com