Lutosa adds a new French Fry processing line in Leuze-en Hainaut

Lutosa plans the addition of a new French Fry line in Leuze-en Hainaut

The current production line for frozen french fries at Lutosa SA in Leuze-en-Hainaut (Belgium). View of the defattening stage after the fryer.

January 30, 2017

Belgian Potato Processing company Lutosa, a subsidiary of McCain Foods, plans the construction of a french fry line in Leuze-en-Hainaut. The line is expected to be operational early in 2018

This was stated by its Managing Director, Erwin Wuyts, during a staff meeting early this year according to local news media.

In 2016, Lutosa processed 750.000 tonnes of potatoes into 425 tons of frozen and chilled French fries, frozen potato specialties and potato flakes.

Aerial view of the Lutosa SA - Leuze-en-Hainaut potato processing plant.

Many equipment upgrades have taken place in the last two yeasr at Lutosa. Erwin Wuyts reviewed the scope of the changes: demolition of an old packaging plant and the construction of a new warehouse for the storage of packaging film and cartons with two loading docks, a total renovation of the production workshop area (10.000m2) and most importantly, the construction of two new potato specialty lines that are in operation since March 2016.

In 2017 Lutosa will build a new line for the production of french fries. Start of the construction is imminent and the new line is scheduled to be operational early in 2018. The investment will add an additional capacity of 180,000 tons of frozen french fries to the production site.

According to Erwin Wuyts, demand outstripped the production capacity in 2016, so PRODUCTION will be the key word in 2017. For that purpose, the french fry manufacturer will also hire 73 new employees in 2017.