Tong and VHM Announces Partnership for Next-generation Box Handling Automation
A new strategic alliance between Tong Engineering and VHM Machinery, a Dutch manufacturer of high-performance box and big bag handling systems, was recently announced.
This new partnership is an exciting step in Tong’s ongoing focus on introducing the latest technologies to the vegetable handling industry. Tong collaborates with top-tier manufacturers to provide fully integrated solutions from field to pack. Tong will offer VHM’s innovative box-handling solutions throughout the UK.
“We are very proud to welcome VHM into our network of partnerships. By integrating their fully automated box and bag handling technology, we are strengthening our proven filling and tipping range, enabling us to achieve unmatched solutions in design, technology, throughput, and labor efficiency. So, whether our customers are looking for standalone box filling equipment or a complete turnkey solution, we can deliver the most advanced systems on the market,” Charlie Rich, Business Development Director at Tong, mentioned.
VHM’s sophisticated equipment takes box and bag handling and automation to the next level. From a flexible feed and discharge of boxes to and from the production process to completely automatic stacking and de-stacking of boxes at either end of the handling process, VHM equipment is designed to provide continuous, high-capacity box handling solutions that dramatically reduce or even eliminate the need for forklifts. The company’s innovative systems ensure the right boxes are in the right place at impressive throughputs.
“With a continued focus among vegetable producers to reduce costs and labor requirements, Tong is dedicated to designing progressive handling facilities that significantly reduce the reliance on the workforce through automation. VHM’s focus on achieving more output with fewer people, aligns perfectly with our vision, making them the ideal partner to work with in making our customer’s handling processes safer, smarter, and faster, yet more relaxed,” Rich added.
“We are very pleased to announce our new collaboration with Tong and are delighted that a UK manufacturer known for innovation and robust engineering will be representing our advanced technology in the UK. I am confident that together we can deliver seamless end-to-end box and bag handling solutions designed to meet the unique needs of the UK vegetable handling industry, helping to make their businesses thrive,” Rik Van Hees, owner of VHM, commented on the partnership.
The teams at Tong and VHM are looking forward to discussing the new partnership with customers on-site and at upcoming industry events in 2024 and into 2025.
“We have already proposed several box-handling solutions combining Tong and VHM equipment to customers in the UK, and the labor-saving benefits alone are set to transform the post-harvest handling process considerably. It’s a very exciting prospect that we can work alongside VHM’s UK representative Bas Van Dijke, to offer UK vegetable producers such streamlined systems that maximize throughput and productivity; letting the machines do the work, so they don’t have to,” Rich concluded.
