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Technology

The plant processes mostly sunflower oilseeds. The main end-products are: raw oil, bulk refined oil, bottled oil. The by-products are: grist, fat acids and pellets. The capacity for sunflower seeds processing is 500 tons/day.

Only seeds which do not exceed 8% humidity and 1.5% impurities are processed. After the post-cleaning, the seeds are introduced into the oil press. By pressing, crude oil, broken husks and press cakes (which still contain 18-22% oil) are obtained.

The crude oil undergoes a process of purification whereby the seed debris is eliminated by decanting and filtering; thereafter, the oil is dried and cooled down to 40-50°C and transferred to external crude oil tanks.

The broken husks, which still contain 18-22% oil, undergo a process of extraction which consists in diluting the oil of the husks with n-hexane. The process of extraction results in miscella (a mixture of n-hexane and oil) and grist containing 25-50% n-hexane. Miscella obtained by the process of extraction is distilled in order to separate the oil from the solvent (n-hexane).

The debenzylation process consists of the elimination of the solvent (n-hexane) and of the humidity from the grist by heating. Thus, the grist which is obtained contains 1% oil, 9% humidity and maximum 0.1% n-hexane.

The crude vegetable oil obtained by pressing or by extraction is refined so as to improve certain characteristics, such as: color, free acidity, taste and smell, transparency, preservability, etc. In this way, the oil becomes fit for culinary uses or for other technical purposes, as it already has the organoleptic features required by the consumers. The stability of oil over longer periods of storage is also increased.

The stages in the operation of the 1l and 2l PET bottling lines are: PET bottle blowing, transporting the bottles to the filling unit with the pneumatic transporter, bottle filling, bottle capping, bottle labeling and date marking. Next, the bottles are taken over by the packing line which consists of a 6 bottle sleeve sealing shrinking packing machine, a pallet packaging machine and a stretch film machine for loaded pallets.

THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL ANALYSIS LABORATORY

Physical and chemical tests are carried out in the laboratory in order to check the quality of the raw material, of the end-products and by-products during the process of production. The aim of the analysis is to check the compliance of the products with the requirements imposed by product quality standards or with the demands of the clients. The raw material and the products are checked according to the Quality Checks Procedure.

Management

The orientation of the entire activity towards the clients' demand and the creation of a quality management system are two major characteristics of the company's activity.

The company's leadership is elected by the General Assembly of the Shareholders and is divided into functional compartments, production units and auxiliary units.

Through capital participations in other production and trading companies, transport and acquisition of agricultural products, “ARGUS S.A.” has become a structure comparable to that of a group of firms.

MANAGEMENT TEAM:

General Manager: Radu Dorel

History

The extraction and processing of oils and fats from vegetable sources has a long tradition in Romania . The first oil companies were founded in Bucharest in early 18 th century; in mid-nineteenth century Romania , oilseed processing turned into mass production.

The story of Argus SA began seventy years ago, and both of them - plant and story - developed gradually. The plant was established in 1943 under the name S.A.R. ARGUS, a private company with Romanian capital, located in Constanţa at no.8 Ardealului Street , in a neighborhood which the locals used to call Obor.

In 1948, the plant was nationalized as the “Oil Plant of Constanţa” and functioned under this name all along the communist period.

In 1968, a modern, bigger plant was built in Constanţa at no.1 Industrial ă Street , where Argus SA has functioned ever since. The two units ran in parallel until 1980, when the older unit was closed down and dismantled.

In 1990, the plant reverted to its old name – “Argus”.

Between 1994 and 1996, the plant went through a process of privatization and became a public limited company, with 100% private capital. The process was one of the successful applications of the Management Employee Buyouts (MEBO) method of privatization in Romania .

From the very beginning of its existence as a private company, in 1991, and more so starting in 1994, the plant went through a period of massive investment, which may be divided into the following stages:

• In 1994 a new bottling line was introduced, with a capacity of 210,000 l/hour.

• In 1996 a pet-bottle making machine was installed and a pet-bottling line was purchased.

• Starting in 1997 the raw oil extraction unit was updated; in 1998, the Bühler pre-cleaning machine was updated too.

• In 1999 and in 2004 the refining unit was updated and revamped; thus, its capacity was increased, and the possibility was created to obtain refined oils by both the chemical and the physical refining methods, which in its turn guaranteed the product quality demanded by the consumers.

• In 2005, a bottling line for 2l bottles was added, and the bottling line for 1l bottles was updated.