In a statement to the stock market this week, Scott Technology announced it had secured multiple high-value contracts with leading global companies, totalling $18 million in value.
These contracts include an AI-enabled lamb primal system for JBS Foods in Cobram, Australia, a loin deboner for Silver Fern Farms in New Zealand, and multiple units of its BladeStop safety bandsaws for Cargill’s North American meat processing operations.
JBS Foods Australia is the country’s largest meat and food-processing company and is part of a multinational enterprise among the world’s largest food corporations.
Scott Technology chief executive Mike Christman said it was really significant for the company to bring work to its Dunedin site, which gave long-term continuity to its presence in New Zealand.
BladeStop was being manufactured globally and the JBS Foods and Silver Fern Farms contracts were an important part of the company’s 2025 budget.
“These projects are effectively shop windows, if you would like to call it that, for all of the other huge meat processes providers globally that will watch to see the performance of these contracts.”
The multimillion-dollar lamb processing system incorporated cutting-edge X-ray, 3D vision, and AI-driven technology capable of processing 600 carcasses per hour.
Designed and built at Scott Technology’s Dunedin facility, it is expected to be operational by late 2025.
The AI would teach itself where to look to eliminate the muscles, sinew, and bones to reduce the processing power required to get the right cuts.
Combined with the X-ray, it would maximise the yield and reduce waste, and this particular product was “market-leading” when it came to throughput and a first-of-type in market, Mr Christman said.
AI “was like magic, really”.
“I think as we integrate AI more and more and we learn its uses, I think it will play even deeper roles, from even increasing the yield, removing more operations or efficiency losses from the process.
“We’re only scratching the surface of learning what AI can do with us . . . I don’t think we really truly understand as an entity yet what AI can do for us in this particular market.
“But we’re doing it, we’re experimenting, we’re gathering data and we will learn — and AI will teach us at the same time.”
He could see AI playing a much greater role in bringing greater efficiencies in all processes of the business, and its products, Mr Christman said.
Scott Technology also had a role in helping its customers understand and trust AI to play that wider part.
“I see AI becoming part of our everyday life in one way or another.
“We just don’t understand it yet.”
Meanwhile, the state-of-the-art loin deboner, able to process more than 10 lamb loins per minute, would enhance Silver Fern Farms’ South Island facility — which was “already world-class”, Mr Christman said.
American food and agriculture company Cargill would also deploy “a significant quantity” of Scott Technology’s BladeStop safety bandsaws across its North American meat processing operations.
The contracts would be recognised across the 2025 financial year and into the 2026 year.
