SOMIC and GOYA Foods announce packaging machinery agreement at PACK Expo Las Vegas

SOMIC America has reached an agreement to provide GOYA Foods with a proprietary, retail-ready end-of-line packaging machine. The deal was announced yesterday on opening day of PACK Expo Las Vegas, which concludes its three-day run tomorrow at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

At PACK Expo, SOMIC is demonstrating in booth SL 6460 the newest version of the SOMIC ReadyPack with GOYA products packed in stand-up pouches. The new machine GOYA has ordered is SOMIC’s 424 T2+ case packer, which rivals ReadyPack’s performance but on a slightly larger platform, said Peter Fox, SOMIC’s Senior Vice President of Sales. He indicated the machine is being designed to handle wraparound case packing of both stand-up pouches and cartons.

GOYA Foods is the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States. As the premier source for authentic Latin cuisine, it produces over 2,500 products from the Caribbean, Mexico, Spain, and Central and South America. Award-winning olive oils, beverages, confectionery, marinades, organic products, frozen items and others are prepared and shipped to stores in bottles and jars, cans, and flexible packaging.

Disney Arrubla, Executive Plant Engineer at GOYA’s manufacturing facility in Seacaucus, New Jersey, said a compact design, speed, packaging flexibility and future considerations factored into his decision.

“I met Peter Fox a couple of years ago at PACK Expo in Chicago. I was attracted by the machine’s compact and smart design,” said Arrubla, who has worked at GOYA for seven years.

“I did consider three other vendors but none could deliver a small footprint machine and meet our specifications,” Arrubla added. “It provides the speed and type of package we need, and offers the flexibility for other packaging design in the future. The biggest challenge was to accommodate all of the equipment in a small room. SOMIC’s case packer is the last piece of the puzzle to fit into the layout.”

Jason Unanue, GOYA Product Manager, said the facility is making preparations for the machine to be installed in the first quarter of 2022.