Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - 4CWhite (The first high-precision Computer-Controlled Collarbone Cutter for Whitefish)

Teaser

Fish processing companies are continuously seeking innovation to minimize their waste, while ensuring the sustainability of the industry. The global fish processing equipment market will keep growing at 4.11% CAGR during the period 2018-2022 with estimated revenues of more...

Summary

Fish processing companies are continuously seeking innovation to minimize their waste, while ensuring the sustainability of the industry. The global fish processing equipment market will keep growing at 4.11% CAGR during the period 2018-2022 with estimated revenues of more than USD 908 million by 2022.

At CURIO, we compete amongst leaders in the manufacturing of fish processing equipment and the only way of outstanding from competitors is to deliver innovation to where there is a need: 4CWhite is the first computer-controlled machine specialized in collarbone-cutting from headed whitefish. Using 4CWhite, whitefish processors can expect a high-value yield increase of fish meat up to 2% from manual cutting and 8% from adapted heading machines, which can be translated into millions of euros in value. Taking into account raw material and labour savings, a typical 4CWhite customer will regain their investment in 1-2 years.

We have planned several activities to ensure a successful commercialization by 2021. Technical objectives include the optimization and development of the \'0’ machines, the optimization of the assembly process and the development of pilots in 4 operational environments with fish processing companies to achieve TRL9. Commercial objectives involve CE marking, commercialization agreements and distribution and service agreements. Communication objectives focus on the development of commercial materials, website and newsletters, advertising in publications and presence in trade fairs.

This project has had as main goals to assess the technical feasibility of the objectives listed above, the commercial viability of our value proposition and the financial requirements of adjusting our working prototype to better serve the needs of our clients, compulsory requirement to launch successfully 4CWHITE in the market.

Work performed

We validated the technical, the commercial and the financial feasibility of our innovation
project and established the plan for a global commercialization.
Technically, we analyzed how we are going to improve the design of our breakthrough innovation to offer our customer a key solution on the market. We established our roadmap to improve the prototype and implement the best features to truly empower our customer.
Our market research aimed to analyze the seafood processing sector and the needs of our target customers. We thoroughly analyzed our target markets and identified key market drivers that will fuel the adoption of our machines. We analyzed key market barriers and risks and established their mitigation actions. We studied our competition landscape in the seafood primary processing sector and our freedom to operate analysis validated that our technology does not infringe any existing patent.
To speed-up post-project sales, we fine-tuned our commercialization strategy and
established agreements and plans with a carefully thought distributor in each our target countries.
Finally, we shaped our projected sales revenues from mid-2020 to the end of 2023.

Final results

Manual collarbone-cutting is widely used but is an ineffective solution due to a high cost of labour. It also depends on the skills of the processor, which often result in an inconstant yield. Moreover, this task is cumbersome.
We have identified that the efficient automation of collarbone-cutting is an opportunity for improvements on the seafood sector.
Our innovation empowers whitefish processing companies whose main activity is filleting: the purchase of our machine will guarantee them the best yield (+2% compared to manual cutting), and reduce their wastage (<6,5% wastage with 4CWhite compared to more than 8% wastage with manual cutting). The savings will be translated into several hundreds to millions of euros in our clients’ bottom-line, depending of the size of the fishes, and their processing volume each year.
Our machine will enhance seafood processors’ productivity allowing them to save more fish loin, but also the final consumer. The part of the fish loin we are saving thanks to 4CWhite is currently shredded and further transformed into low-value products.
The automation of this task will also reduce accidents in fisheries (cuts) and absence from work due musculo-skeletal injuries.

Website & more info

More info: https://curio.is.