Ingenuity - New Orleans City Business

LaitramCompany founded on innovationcontinues to adapt to a changing worldIT ALL STARTED with a rubber shrimp boot.Laitram LLC founder J.M. Lapeyre accidentallystepped on a shrimp while working in his father’sshrimp plant. The crustacean popped out of itsshell. With more experimentation, and the rubberrollers in his mother’s washing machine, he createdthe process that would launch a company built oninnovation.Lapeyre, who received more than 190 patents duringhis lifetime, died in 1989. But the company hestarted has continued to grow.Since the founding of Laitram Machinery Inc. in1949, Laitram LLC has grown to 1,350 employeesworldwide with 2003 revenues of $176.5 million.Based in Harahan, it now has five divisions:Laitram Machinery Inc., which introduced the automaticshrimp peeler in 1949; Intralox LLC, whichsupplies modular plastic conveyor belts around theworld; Lapeyre Stair Inc., which manufactures alternatingtread stairs and conventional stairs; LaitramMachine Shop LLC, providing machining services toall company divisions and some outside customers;and Industrial Microwave Systems LLC, a NorthCarolina company Laitram acquired in September2003 that produces microwave-based heating anddrying systems for the manufacturing process.“Innovation is our lifeblood,” said Paul Horton,plant manager for Intralox. “If we don’t changewe’re dead.”The division that began it all, Laitram Machinery,The man who started it all, J.M. Lapeyre, founder of Laitram.PHOTO BY MICHAEL SUSTENDALLapeyre Stair President Elliot Mertz, at the top of a Lapeyre Stair, and Flemming Frederiksen, left, president of Laitram Machinery,with Intralox Plant Manager Paul Horton, right, of the Intralox plant in Harahan.is still manufacturing processing systems that clean,peel, devein and grade shrimp. It also manufacturessteam cookers and immersion chillers. The firstshrimp-peeling machine was designated a historicalengineering landmark by the American Society ofMechanical Engineers.“We are continuously updating and improvingexisting designs,” said Flemming Frederiksen, presidentof Laitram Machinery. “We’re trying to followthe philosophy that if the customer doesn’t makemoney, we don’t make money.”The division leases and sells its equipment toshrimp processors around the world. Initially,Laitram grew because it had protected patents for itsshrimp peelers, but those only last for so long, so itcontinued to look for new ways to grow. It is focusingnow on cooking and has a prototype in the works fora patented process that cooks shrimp at temperatureslower than 212 degrees — the industry standard.This means clients lose less soluble proteins andwater and get a better yield and a better tasting product,Frederiksen said. Laitram is eyeing SoutheastAsia markets for the process.One processor in Thailand cooks 100,000pounds of shrimp a day, he said. “So I can give him 2percent to 3 percent extra yield. At $3.50 a poundthat’s $10,000 a day for him, so that’s real money.”Laitram Machinery eventually gave birth toIntralox in 1973 because J.M. Lapeyre needed a wayto load shrimp efficiently into his peeling machines.He invented the first all-plastic modular constructionconveyor belt to replace the rusty and dangeroussteel belts then in use.Today, about half of Intralox’s business is relatedto food and beverage although it also supplies industriessuch as pharmaceuticals and automobiles. It hasassembly plants in Australia, Brazil, Japan, theNetherlands and the United Kingdom.The division has close to 1,000 molds and 90 moldingmachines that allow it a high level of automation,4A 2004 Innovator of the Year