The signing of the contract in 2021 marked a special occasion, as the fourth generation of entrepreneurs from both I’Anson Brothers as Ottevanger Milling Engineers came together to close the deal. It was quite a journey to come to this point; Chris I’Anson first contacted OME already back in 2013 to start initial discussions. ‘A carefully considered choice,’ says Chris I’Anson.
Area Sales Manager
Ottevanger Milling Engineers
Netherlands-based Ottevanger Milling Engineers (OME), part of the Triott Group and a technology manufacturer specialising in turnkey feed mills, has once again turned heads with its recently completed installation of I’Anson Bros’ feed mill in the UK. This is because I’Anson, after much research and discussion, trusted OME with the largest investment in its 125-year history.
We talked about the reasons for this trust, the details of the project and Ottevanger’s future projects with Rob Hinten, the Area Sales Manager of OME. Details in our interview.
Ottevanger Milling Engineers is a well-known company specialising in the design, manufacture and supply of machinery and plants for the grain processing and animal feed industries. However, for our readers who don’t know much about you, could you first tell us a little about Ottevanger?
Ottevanger Milling Engineers is a leading global supplier of production equipment and processing lines for the compound feed industry. Privately owned, very experienced and successful Dutch family company, already established in 1909.
Already the fourth generation is in charge, so this means a lot of skills and experience in the animal feed industry is on board. Throughout all these years, we have realised worldwide a lot of successful turnkey projects. Regarding our customer base, 80-90% of our business is export related.
With three production facilities in The Netherlands, we can guarantee an outstanding and high-quality standard of all our equipment.
OME is associated in the Triott Group (owned by the Ottevanger family). Together with all sister companies (PTN, IVS, Almex, TSC and Inteqnion) OME has all the knowledge and skills available, to realise complete turnkey projects in the animal feed industry. But also, for premix and concentrate plants, fish feed and pet food plants, we can offer complete solutions.
We know that for companies, each completed project is a tangible symbol of success. Ottevanger has recently successfully completed a very important feed milling project in the UK. What does the completion of this project mean to you?
With realising the I’Anson Feed Mill in Thirsk (Dalton New Bridge), we built the latest completely new compound feed mill in the United Kingdom. The last complete mills built in the U.K. were Fane Valley in Omagh (Northern Ireland), in 2009, and Pyes Franklin (nowadays Carrs Billington) in Lancaster in 1996. Also realised by Ottevanger Milling Engineers. No need to say that those three mills are excellent references for us.
Especially the new I’Anson mill recently gave us a lot of exposure and a very good publicity.
What can you tell us about the details of this project, which is defined as a hi-tech facility? What distinguishes this facility from others, its technological infrastructure, production capacity, types of feed produced, etc.?
The new I’Anson Feed Mill is a state-of-the-art feed mill which enables I’Anson to continue to meet the growing demand for existing customers and increase its export business.
The project was a best practice team effort, with all Triott sister companies, local certified contractors, and local suppliers.
OME has initially installed two production lines, one for ruminant feed, one for poultry feed, each with a capacity of 15 tons per hour. We have designed the project in such a way that capacity easily can be doubled, by having another two lines included. But also a future second intake section as well as two extra bulk outloading bays. In this way the feed mill eventually can achieve a total capacity of 60 tons per hour.
We know that this plant is the largest investment in the 125-year history of I’Anson Brothers. Why did I’Anson trust Ottevanger with such an important project?
The signing of the contract in 2021 marked a special occasion, as the fourth generation of entrepreneurs from both I’Anson Brothers as Ottevanger Milling Engineers came together to close the deal. It was quite a journey to come to this point; Chris I’Anson first contacted OME already back in 2013 to start initial discussions. “A carefully considered choice,” says Chris I’Anson. “Together we visited several factories in the UK which OME had designed and built, and we were very impressed with the quality of the design and equipment.” When I’Anson consistently found the same high quality at OME plants in Europe, it only reinforced this confidence.
Also very important for I’Anson was the sole point of contact concept. This means only one contact who can be addressed and is responsible for the entire project.
The entire project is quite massive as it included not only the supply, installation and commissioning of all equipment, electric controls and automation software. But additionally, the supply and erection of all dosing and finished product bins, all supporting steel structures for the bins, for the machinery tower and for the office. Also, third supplies including installation work, like the steam boiler, lift, weighbriges, cladding etc. were included in the contract. Mechanical and electrical installation was caried out by local certified UK contractors. This included Health and Safety coordination. The local contractors all worked under OME’s supervision.
All in all, this required quite some extensive and accurate project planning, well carried out by our project management department.
Supporting and developing a facility while it is operating is as important as putting it into operation successfully. What services will Ottevanger continue to support I’Anson and its facility with in the future?
Of course, OME will continue supporting this feed mill, to keep it as optimal and up to shape as possible. We have a dedicated UK Service hub, based in Hull who will give full service to this mill. This service includes supply of recommended spare parts, carrying out frequent preventive maintenance, advice on daily housekeeping and training of responsible staff. Our service hub also is there to give full service to all our other customers in the UK and Ireland.
What’s next for Ottevanger? What can you tell us about your ongoing projects, future goals, new technologies and investments?
Of course, OME will be very eager to carry out more of such projects, not only in the UK and Ireland, but worldwide. When speaking about UK only, this is not easy with the Brexit behind us but still facing the consequences. Also, the economic situation, which is not optimal, is not really helping. But the market is dynamic, changes now and then and is always open for new challenges. This means we should be inventive to explore new opportunities.
One of the areas we look at and where we can offer solutions is, reducing energy cost (e.g. by offering our latest development the Monoroll pellet press). Another interesting topic could be how to make customer’s feed mill future proof. Here we can offer so called fit tests where our team of engineers analyses the mill and come up with a report of recommendations and improvements. Also, what will be the cost involved and the benefits.
