With a surface area of 9,000 square meters, Atelier INOVé started production in January 2023 and currently has a team of 14 people.
French beverage producer LSDH Group’s new greenfield soy plant in Saint-Denis-de-l’Hôtel is now fully operational. The plant, located in the municipality of Loiret in central France, utilizes state-of-the-art dry-processing technology from Bühler. The plant is part of Atelier INOVé, a new industrial facility owned by LSDH in partnership with Sofiprotéol, an investment company dedicated to the production of plant-based beverages and to the development of local supply chains for agricultural raw materials.
LSDH Group’s new soy plant utilizes innovative pulse storage and processing technology from Bühler, which delivered and commissioned the dry-processing section of the facility. The cleaning and dehulling process line has an output capacity of 3 tons per hour while the soybean storage capacity is 240 tons. “It was quite reassuring for us to work with a partner who knows the business well, who has a strong background in soybean dehulling and experience in processing soybeans for plant-based beverages. We knew that there were already lines and plants equipped with Bühler technology for this type of application,” explains Thibaud Bombart, Project Manager within LSDH Group. “Therefore, Bühler's experience and know-how in this field were determining factors in our decision.”
For this greenfield industrial facility, Bühler supplied the complete cleaning section including its MTRB separator, the MTSC destoner, the SORTEX A optical sorter, the OTW fluid-bed heat-exchanger, the MHSA dehuller, the MOZJ dampener, several aspiration channels and all the process auxiliaries such as mechanical conveyors and pneumatic lines. “We were delighted to take part in this innovation journey with LSDH, combining our forces to develop sustainable value chains, as Bühler has many years of experience and solid expertise in processing pulses,” says Frederic Bobineau, Sales Manager at Bühler Group. “The installed plant is specific for soy processing, however, there is space for installing additional processing lines for other raw materials, such as oat flour and oat flakes, and we have the technology.” This future expansion is in line with LSDH’s plans.
Initially established as a dairy company, the French family business employes 2,000 people in its two business areas: the liquid and the vegetable. Salads and aromatic herbs are packaged in the two production sites of the vegetable business area. The five sites of the liquid business area are in charge of the production and packaging of various beverages and liquid foods. These products are sold mainly as store brands in the country’s major supermarket chains and generated for the company a turnover of EUR 965 million in 2021. Atelier INOVé, where the Bühler-equipped soy plant is located, is part of the company’s recently opened innovation ecosystem.
Comment Now