Yellow lines depict the sprawling area of Meiko’s operations
Service for the day is over. The crew gets to work, cleaning up the workspace and more often than not, pile soiled wares into the automatic dishwashing assistant knowing that it will do the job better than the manual option. Hygiene is a great concern for all foodservice facility operators but is usually centered on productivity and results. Important as they are, MEIKO has a wider scope that “hygienic warewashing is not more water and more energy but a little more thought”.
Symbolic water fountain at the headquarters
Hence, the introduction of “Mission M” built upon the founders’ vision of making the world a cleaner and more hygienic place. In 1927, Oskar Meier and Franz Konrad started MEIKO, with a fountain as its brand symbol interpreting purity, clarity, a life source and an attractive meeting point. A place where diverse ideas and skills are brought together for a single purpose considering the multinational presence of the company; stretching across 6 other European countries aside from its home base of Germany as well as in more than 90 other countries.
The new M-iClean looking sharp
THE REINHEITSGEBOT BENCHMARK
With the right tools, warewashing equipment is not a stretch to produce but what is the standard a manufacturer chooses to achieve? Reinheitsgebot is MEIKO’s view on the purity of its products and technologies that not only takes care of cleanliness but made with the environment in mind. Its three rules on purity include being 100% sure through applying the correct configurations in a wash cycle with technology to analyse and maintain records thus minimising errors for optimum results. There is a difference between clean and sparkling clean and purity rule number two is leave no trace and with GiO MODULE and GiO TECH, manual polishing is no longer necessary. Rounding up Reinheitsgebot is be gentle but tough where it puts the user’s health, washware and environment first yet unflinching on sanitation. Boosted by its 1,100 staff in Offenburg, where the story of MEIKO began, the site measuring 168,000m2 and built area 89,000m2 is where technology, engineering and machinery meet to craft the equipment that recorded a healthy percentage of export rates at 53% in 2013; supported by its almost 1,000 other employees around the world.
Streamlined M-iQ assembly & testing area
PRIORITY FOR SUSTAINABILITY
The fountain and its continuous flow of water is a perfect representation of the importance of being able to sustain the work it does for the long run. As the global population grows, so does the need for consumption and in MEIKO’s field, the need for water and energy is undeniable. In playing its part, the usage of water, chemicals and energy as minimally as possible is applied in all areas of operations; from development, sourcing, manufacturing and dispatch. By developing products that use minimum resources, production becomes more efficient with lesser materials to process and the use of durable and recoverable materials such as stainless steel will assure less wastage. For example, the innovative triple M-iQ filter in M-iQ dishwashers removes filtered food residues from the wash cycle, collects them and is then ejected under pressure allowing wash water to be constantly clean without needing a top up; resulting in cutting down the use of detergent and water.
This awareness that begins from within the company has also impacted its clients; evident when they choose MEIKO for their establishments. While no project is too big or too small for the company, results of sustainable practices are perhaps more telling in large-scale operations such as company canteens or catering businesses. A prime example would be the Hampton School in Middlesex where 1,200 students and staff have their lunch each day. MEIKO’s consultants do not just go in and tell a customer which dishwashing system to get but spends time to calculate and lay out comparisons before suggesting the best possible system for the client. By observing energy, fresh water, chemical consumption together with sewerage charges of the canteen’s existing dishwashing solution for each day, the company was able to offer its M-iQ machine that lessened the burden by almost half the cost and resulted in a better outlook for the environment.
Dishwashing in application
MISSION M; UP FOR ANY CHALLENGE
A continuous project; or rather a whole philosophy in MEIKO’s world, has led to the company being at the forefront of clean solutions for multiple industries and in different capacities – hotels, bakeries, coffee shops, restaurants, institutional catering kitchens, hospitals and care homes and even in the transport industry including air and sea travel.
The logistics of warewashing on a ship requires a different set of workflow. There must be sanitation practices beginning from processing the large quantities of produce, the washing up of cutlery and wares after each service and most importantly waste management.
To that, MEIKO actively pursues ideas that can meet these needs and has so far presented its compact food waste system AZP 80, which is also available as split unit AZ & AP 80 that can be integrated into any industrial kitchen while for larger facilities with multiple food outlets, Meiko’s engineered and customised solution is called WasteStar, a vacuum-based food waste collecting and treatment system. Accolade and awards have come MEIKO’s way and perhaps the one most memorable in conjunction with its ecoconsciousness would be the Best Environmental Product in the category “Emissions Reduction, Treatment and Waste Separation”, which the German state of Baden-Württemberg gave to its M-iQ series. Other recognitions include the Mercury Award and Kitchen Innovation Awards (USA, 2011) and the STAR AWARD 2012 (Gold) by Top Hotel; Germany’s most widely read journal for hotels. Meiko is also listed as the world market leader for conveyor dish and ware washing machines in the “Enclyclopaedia of German Global World Market Leaders”. The hidden champions of the German industry published by Florian Langenscheidt and Prof. Dr. Bernd Venohr.
Much as reliable products make a brand, MEIKO realises the importance of human presence and its Service Oasis is a dedicated division for the service and maintenance of its commercial equipment. The MEIKO Basic agreement that runs for five years covers scheduled service, support for technical information, repairs and spare part replacement while MEIKOPlus offers the same but with the advantage of being available after-office hours, weekends and public holidays; an essential assistance particularly for the foodservice industry. On the Asia forefront, the Service Oasis is part of the plan but at the moment the company is still working on setting up the complete system hence all service is currently carried out by its authorised ser vice partner.
A pioneer in the warewashing segment, MEIKO’s beginnings 87 years ago have paved the way for it to meet the global standards of sanitation – regular and integrated warewashers, conveyor solutions for systematic sorting, pass-through and special washing units, as well as cleaning and disinfection appliances for healthcare facilities; all with individual capabilities to be part of ‘the clean solution’.
