On Thursday, June 18th 2020 there was a fire at the production site AG of Huijbregts Groep in Helmond.
Location AG consist of a warehouse of raw materials and a mixing facility with 5 mixers for non-savory blends. This blending line was completely destroyed and the stock was completely lost.
In the floor plan below, location AG (2.400 m2) is colored red and positioned throughout the Huijbregts Groep site (over 100.000 m2). The largest mixing areas are located in location M (27 mixers - savory) and location AL (18 mixers – non-savory). As part of the contingency plan, all different production units are clearly compartmentalized with intermediate corridors and fire doors on both sides of the corridor.
Immediately after the fire started, AG's production lines and stocks were blocked in the computer system and new orders of raw materials were placed directly after. These orders were received from Friday morning, June 19th.
The company has been divided into focus areas:
The code-orange area consists of the corridors around AG, hall AB and hall AE. There are no product storage and no production lines. This area has been extensively monitored, inspected and still has our special attention regarding our prerequisite program (PRP) and pest control.
After the fire, also a code yellow-area was appointed. This area consisted of:
- End products warehouse AL (non-savory)
- Production location AL-west (non-savory) in building AL
- Production location M (savory)
The code-yellow area was critically inspected by the QA/QC department on Thursday night. There was no open product present, everything was properly closed and packed and sealed. QA/QC carried out an extensive organoleptic assessment of the relevant stocks, production lines and environment. No sensory deviations were found. The compartmentalization and contingency concept proved to be effective.
On Friday morning, June 19th the yellow area was released by QA/QC and declared, green area. The stocks in warehouse AL has been screened by QA/QC, released and moved to an external warehouse of a professional logistics service provider (food specialized - IFS logistics certified - part of audit program of Huijbregts Groep).
The warehouse function of hall AG has been completely taken over by warehouse J and warehouse AL. The production capacity of hall AG has been completely taken over by our other non-savory production site AL-west. If necessary, the current day shift can be extended. Measures have been taken to ensure food safety and delivery reliability.
