Aasted becomes a part and shareholder of SweetConnect

Key facts

• Danish machine manufacturer Aasted Aps invests in the digital confectionery production platform SweetConnect, currently being developed in Germany.
• SweetConnect's goal is to create a single, cohesive digital platform servicing all parties involved in the confectionery production value-chain.
• Aasted's decision sends a strong message to the industry that digitalization can only be tackled collectively, encourages others to follow suit.
• Only the industry truly understands the needs of the industry. Collaboration is key, says Tim Hellwig, Managing Director of SweetConnect. 

Danish family-owned machine manufacturer Aasted Aps, a global leader in supplying complete processing lines and equipment to the chocolate, bakery, and confectionery industries, has entered a strategic partnership with the pioneering digital confectionery production platform SweetConnect.

A strategic partnership for a digital future

Aasted finds itself in good company among reputable confectionery machine manufacturers, such as Sollich KG, Theegarten-Pactec GmbH & Co. KG, Winkler und Dünnebier Süßwarenmaschinen GmbH, and Chocotech GmbH, all of which are already part of SweetConnect – an initiative striving to unite the industry to establish an all-encompassing digital platform, accepted and used by confectionery producers and machine manufacturers alike.

The secret ingredient is teamwork

“Only together, we can replace piecemeal approaches and work towards a unified solution that benefits all,” says Tim Hellwig, Managing Director of SweetConnect. This is a statement that Aasted Aps CEO Piet Hoffmann Tæstensen can only agree with, as many market-participants push their individual ideas into the market, leaving confectionery producers with fragmented systems that don't communicate or simply do not service the entire production process, which is often highly individualized and varies from producer to producer. “It has proven difficult and inefficient for standalone businesses to tackle the complexity a true solution requires alone,” Hoffmann points out.

In bed with competitors 

SweetConnect's main challenge remains convincing competing machine manufacturers to collaborate for the good of their clients, although many of the primary concerns are unfounded, as Hellwig clarifies: “The platform is not technically designed to be able to share your intellectual property or your customers' data. In fact, data from different sources is strictly stored separately”, he explains.  “What we do share, however, are the benefits. Confectionery producers benefit from more functionality and a wider range of supported machines. And with every new machine manufacturer we gain, the number of customers using the SweetConnect platform exponentially increases. A solution developed with combined know-how and experience simply has the highest potential to get it right and subsequently be accepted by customers around the globe.” 

New ways, new opportunities

“A win-win scenario for machine builders and confectionery producers,” says Enrico Franz, Business Development Manager at SweetConnect. “By joining, machine manufacturers gain valuable insights on the performance of their equipment, increase the quality of their customer service, and generate new business, upselling and aftermarket-sales opportunities. Confectionery producers, on the other hand, can significantly reduce downtimes by accelerating the procurement process of spare and wear parts, while lowering response times through access to best practices and knowledge, resulting in a smoothly running production.”

Onwards and upwards

For SweetConnect, the new addition sends an important signal to the global confectionery industry and to all the remaining machine manufacturers who have yet to join. Collaboration is key to further growing the initiative. In the near future, the SweetConnect platform will support Aasted equipment natively. The exact timeline, however, has yet to be established. 

SweetConnect platform and resources for machine manufacturers and confectionery producers are available at www.sweetconnect.io/aasted or get in touch via info@sweetconnect.io.