Clark hosts $14-million sausage casing plant

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines  – The firm which invented edible collagen casings for sausages is moving into this Freeport with investments worth some $14 million for a manufacturing plant to serve the growing Asian market.

Clark Development Corporation (CDC) president and chief executive officer Felipe Antonio Remollo said he and Viskase Asia Pacific Corp. (Viskase) president Jean Luc-Tillon have signed an agreement on the project, following a groundbreaking for it at a site covering 39,600 square meters at Industrial Estate 5 here.

“Viskase will establish a manufacturing plant for various packaging materials for meat products. It will initially invest as much as $14 million with an expected employment of 100 to 150 workers once fully operational,” Remollo said. The corporation is based in Chicago.

Viskase is expected to export some $40 million worth of products during its three years of operations, Remollo added.

“Viskase is a pioneer in the manufacturing, converting, shirring, printing, exporting, importing, purchasing, selling, reselling, and distributing cellulose, collagen and plastic casings and packaging materials,” Remollo said.

Tillon noted that “from its inception as the inventor of cellulosic casings to partner in today’s complex global processed meat trade, Viskase has remained the industry’s leading supplier of proven casing solutions for 80 years.”

Viskase was founded by Erwin Freund in 1925 after he discovered a form of casing that could replace animal intestines to retain the shape of sausages.

The firm, known initially Visking Corporation, introduced cellulose casings for large sausage products in 1927. In 1931, the first colored casings were introduced, along with a method of printing on the casings for brand identity and advertising promotion.

In the 1950’s, it opened plants in Beauvais, France and another in Loudon, Tennessee.

In the 1960’s, the corporation developed new casings for meat products, together with automated stuffing equipment that churn out pre-shirred uniformly sized casings.