State-of-the-art flour mill to cater to bakeries and eateries in the country
Serendib Flour Mills.
When Serendib Flour Mills (Pvt) Ltd commenced operations in Colombo in 2008 it was based on one product and one price but today it produces different types of flour needed by bakeries and eateries, cafes, restaurants, supermarkets, homes and industrial manufacturing units in the country for making bread and other products.
This was stated by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kevin O’ Leary during a media tour of the Serendib Flour Mills at the Colombo Port premises last week.
“We only talk about quality and not about the product of our business. For us to get to a high level we had to invest in technology to ensure quality and purity of our products we buy wheat from Canada and the US. Two years ago we bought wheat from 10 or more different countries but today the bulk of the wheat is from Canada to ensure consistency of our product. We also have done several restructuring in our operations and have aligned with our customers that brought positive results to the company.”
Serendib Flour Mills is a massive complex, 54 meters high, located in the Colombo Port surrounded by sea on all its three sides where ships bring in wheat from different countries. When ships are decked at the foot of the mill two huge pumps go into action to suck out the wheat from ships and then pump into 18 silos located at the upper flour of the mill where the wheat is stored. The silos can hold 60,000 metric tonnes of wheat. Journalists toured the flour mills and watched how the milling process was being done by an automatic mechanised process, how the wheat is segregated, cleaned and blended and graded until it becomes a finished product.
It is then packed and loaded into waiting lorries to be taken to different parts of the country. The media team also watched the wheat cleaning process which entails the removal of any impurities such as stones, pebbles and straw found in the wheat during harvesting.
Following the cleaning process the wheat is then tempered by adding water and after a second cleaning the wheat is then sent into the milling process.
All the wheat varieties are brought to the same moisture level and soaked up to 24 hours and another round of cleaning is done to remove smaller impurities. It is then weighed and taken to the factory floor.” It takes 24Â hours before the wheat is milled,” said an official.
“Rolls Royce machinery imported from Buhler Swiss technology from Switzerland has been installed at the mill to ensure quality standards as they are the finest machinery in the world,” said Chief Technical Officer Mark Healing. “When we designed the mill we sought the views of customers, bakers and other end users. We have built a mill than can make any type of flour, five or six varieties to meet consumer demand. We make the complete range of flour such as the bakers flour and high volume bread flour using strong wheat from Canada. We also make Rotti flour, Biscuit flour Cake flour, etc by using wheat from Canada, the US, Australia and Russia.”
Mr. Healing said that they have a consistent supply of quality wheat that was important for manufacturing wheat. “Our complex is full of machinery and one of the largest plants in the world. Apart from quality control we pay huge emphasis on hygiene standard of our products.”