Marel: Business Units

Stork Poultry Processing

Since 1963 Stork has been designing, manufacturing and installing machinery for the poultry-processing industry. They did this for the first time in 1975 as Stork PMT - with PMT standing for Poultry-Processing, Machinery and Technology. Nowadays we have over six hundred employees, a office in Boxmeer and a production site in Dongen. We have a office in Georgia (Gainesville). This office serves our customers in North and Central America. Here too we handle everything in house, from development to manufacturing and from sales to service. We also have a subsidiary in Brazil for the South American market. Many of our customers are multinationals, and we have a lot of dealings with medium-sized companies. There are numerous reasons for our market leadership: our efforts in innovation, the breadth of our product range, the quality of our custom products, etc. The main factor is our human capital though, or, to put it plainly, our employees.

Townsend Further Processing

We were already active in the poultry-processing industry when we took our first step into the attractive convenience-food market. The new organisation is located in Boxmeer (NLD) and a site in Des Moines (Iowa). We were able to expand the product range into what it is today: forming machines, coating systems and ovens for processing meat, fish and potatoes into end products. Townsend Further Processing customers are industrial snack or freezer giants. In short, we are creating a distinct profile for ourselves. People who come to work for us are part of this.

Marel Meat Processing

Marel Meat Processing develops and manufactures high-quality machines and systems for the processing of red and white meat. 

The old organisation was founded in 1946 by Ray Townsend as Townsend Engineering Copany after he invented a skinning machine that revolurionized the meat packing industry. He did not stop. His second big invention was the Frank-o-Matic, an idea that was sketched out on a napkin. This was basically the first automated hot dog maker. His third invention was an improvement on the injector, a machine that injects flavorings into prok bellies to make bacon. These were his 3 most revolutionary inventions. Townsend Engineering now has over 100 US patents, and 400 patents in foreign companies

Ray Townsend has been a familiar face here for over 60 years. He relinquished one-man control of the business in the mid 1990's, and his son Ted Townsend was very active in the business for many years. In 2006, Stork purchased Townsend Engineering Company and the company's name was changed. Today, decisions are made by the Business Team. Stork Townsend is located in Des Moines and Oss (The Netherlands).