KQF has recently installed and commissioned a new meat-cutting system that will greatly enhance the company’s manufacturing capacity. 

Fitted at a cost of around £200,000, the new American-made equipment – a Weiler Omni Grinder – is capable of cutting frozen meat blocks at a rate of 3,000 kg per hour. In addition to removing a potential bottleneck in production, it has also begun to deliver valuable labour efficiencies.

KQF has introduced the new machinery as a result of rising demand for convenience-style halal meat products; demand that is being driven by both retailers and wholesalers. 

By delivering cost-efficiencies, the investment should also enable KQF to resist future cost price increases and thereby support consumers at a time when household budgets are still tightly stretched.

The purchase is the latest in a series of major investments, as KQF managing director Faruk Vali explains:

“The new cutter and grinder is an important addition to our line. It largely automates what had previously been a relatively slow and labour-intensive process, and it links almost seamlessly with a number of other vital systems.

“During the COVID pandemic, when social distancing was a significant safety constraint, we had to re-engineer many of our processes in order to maintain production capacity. Between 2020 and 2022, we upgraded the majority of our manufacturing equipment at a cost of around £1.5 million. This enabled us to create a much more efficient inline production process that encompasses cutting, forming, freezing and packing for burgers, sausages and kebabs.

“The new cutter fits very neatly into this same process. It means that from cutting to freezing, we now have a maximum production capacity of 24 tonnes for every 8-hour shift.” 

KQF manufactures an extensive range of halal-certified products at its factory in Blackburn. It has achieved an AA rating by BRC Global Standards.