A new direction for Thrive Life
Thrive Life markets a wide range of freeze-dried foods, including fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and ready meals predominantly sold in the United States and Canada from their headquarters near Salt Lake City, Utah. The company was founded in 2004 to provide shelving to people wishing to store provisions. It subsequently expanded to include the packaging of the food and, more recently, to freeze-drying the frozen food in its own plant.
The challenge
Thrive Life has built a successful business in the packing and retailing of dried food received from suppliers. However, back in 2011/12, world events caused an increase in demand, and regular supplies of freeze-dried produce were more difficult to obtain. Next came a major blow when the company’s main supplier bought its leading competitor. It was clear that Thrive Life would need to freeze-dry its own food in the future even though the company had, at that time, no experience of working with the technology.
The solution
Thrive Life CEO, Steve Palmer, fortuitously met Morten Woldsted Petersen, GEA’s Area Sales Manager for freeze drying, at a trade show in 2011. That meeting was the spark that led to Thrive Life investing in three GEA RAY® batch freeze dryers and breathing new life into the business.
Of course, Steve researched the market fully before choosing GEA technology for his new venture. He said that there were good reasons that led him to choose the GEA RAY® machines.
“Firstly, the output of the dryers is superior to anything else that's out there,”he explained. “The other main benefit that GEA dryers have is the ability to automatically defrost while they are running. You don’t see that anywhere else. With other machines, you must wait two or three hours between runs to defrost the condenser cooler. Multiply that over the course of a year, and it’s not too hard to make the case for the extra cost.” Steve knew that with GEA he was buying dryers that are recognized as being the industry leader.
Thrive Life CEO, Steve Palmer
He was also attracted by GEA’s reputation for customer service. “We had no experience in this market, and we knew that GEA was pretty good at solving problems. Morten was super patient with us. He probably spent the best part of two or three years answering every single question that I had. He even arranged for us to use a pilot RAY® plant so that we could start dialling in our profiles a year before our dryers were due to arrive. As soon as the production machines were installed, we were ready to go.”
Steve said that the support throughout had been excellent.“We often had to call people in the middle of the night. They were really great people, and we always got a quick response. I know we could probably have bought similar machines from China for less money, but we wouldn’t have gotten the support we needed. Without that support, we would have for sure failed.”
The result
Thrive Life received a fourth GEA RAY® dryer two years ago and, as demand has continued to expand, now has two more on order from GEA for delivery early in 2021. The plant processes around 18 tons of food a day with over 80 different products including ready meals and probiotics, all using the same equipment. “That's one of the great things about these dryers: they allow for a whole variety of products from meat, which is pretty tolerant, to fruit that can easily collapse during drying, and even really technical products, such as bacterial strains,” said Steve. “I don't think we've found any products that we've not been able to make work.”
Inspection of freeze dried meat
We often had to call people in the middle of the night. They were really great people, and we always got a quick response. I know we could probably have bought similar machines from China for less money, but we wouldn’t have gotten the support we needed. Without that support, we would have for sure failed.”
– Steve Palmer, CEO, Thrive Life
Opening up a GEA RAY125 freeze dryer
Steve said that the dryers are easy to clean and very energy efficient. In the last four years, there have been few issues, and GEA has resolved them all quickly and effectively. “Every relationship has its strains,” he said. “But the thing that makes this partnership so great is the willingness to grow with us, to help us be successful, to understand who we are and what we're trying to accomplish, and to come in with great solutions to help us be what we are trying to become.”
And those aims stretch far beyond just having a successful business and providing long-term security for its employees. Thrive Life reserves a proportion of its profits to support a village in Kenya where it has been able to build schools, reservoirs, and hygiene facilities.“It’s been really rewarding for our team to see that not only have we been given opportunities for ourselves, but we are also able to do things that make other people’s lives better.”
It’s amazing what can come from one meeting at a trade show!
RAY® Pilot Plant Freeze Dryer
