| Singapore | 21 Dec 2015 | Asia Samachar |

When you mention Melvados, Singaporeans think of brownies, cheesecakes, lava cakes, Ice creams, sorbets, breads and meals.
Its a brand under Foodedge Gourmet Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based food manufacturer co-founded by Manmeet Singh.
Moving forward, Foodedge Gourmet plans to expand into regional markets such as Japan, Taiwan and South Korea with customised offerings, as well as develop a mobile app for F&B customers to place their orders.
“This will help to minimise mistakes and disputes for orders that are made over the phone,” Manmeet tells The Straits Times.
Foodedge Gourmet supplies food and beverage to key clients such as major airlines, restaurants, five star hotels, country clubs, supermarkets, convenience stores, care chains and fine dining outlets in Singapore, according to information on its website.
Founded in 2003, Foodedge Gourmet has since grown to become an influential business in the food services industry, meeting the needs of more than 400 clients countrywide, the company says.
“All our food inventions are created and baked right here in Singapore,” it adds.
As it mentioned on its website, Foodedge Gourmet began as a supplier of food products to five-star hotels, airlines, restaurant and cafes.
Things changed in 2008 when they expanded into the retail space, according to the report in The Straits Times, which was also
To avoid encroaching on the turf of its business customers, Foodedge Gourmet also tweaked the recipes and packaging of Melvados products, which are sold online and at its Joo Chiat store.
That strategy had worked so far, with Foodedge Gourmet enjoying growing sales of its products from both consumers and F&B customers every year, Manmeet told the newspaper.
Manmeet started Foodedge Gourmet with his business partner Karl-Gunter Ableitner.
The report, entitled Sharpening its edge in ice-cream treats, goes on:
Although the company moved to a bigger production facility at Woodland Terrace when Melvados was launched, many of its manufacturing processes were still labour-intensive.
In ice-cream making, for example, Foodedge Gourmet used to rely on manual batch freezing, which could only produce three tubs or 15 litres of ice cream each time.
“This took a lot of time and power as well, because for every batch, we had to cool the ice cream mix to minus 4 deg C, before restarting the process all over again,” Mr Singh says.
The company had to find a more scalable way to increase ice-cream production, and the only way to do this was through automation, where 300kg of ingredients can be mixed in a single tank and frozen continuously.
With the support of Spring Singapore’s Capability Development Grant, Foodedge Gourmet implemented a new production system comprising mixing and ageing tanks, homogenisers and freezers that are capable of producing 500 litres of ice cream per hour.
The new production system, implemented last year, has also helped to improve the quality of the company’s ice cream.
“With better control over the quantity of ingredients and the use of high-pressure homogenisers, we’re able to produce a smooth and creamy product,” Mr Singh says.
“We don’t get that kind of quality with batch freezing.”
By doing away with manual processes, Foodedge Gourmet now runs its ice cream production line with just two workers, down from four to five previously.
“That’s a huge productivity gain for us, as we’re producing and selling 60 per cent more ice cream with fewer people,” he says.
Now that the company’s production bottleneck is out of the way, Mr Singh and his staff are able to pour more research and development (R&D) resources into developing new and customised ice cream flavours for clients.
“Some of our customers have a certain idea of what kind of ice cream they want — such as tuna ice cream — and we help to turn their ideas into reality,” he adds.
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