16 Jul 2026
Prod Atlantique began in 2019 as a branch of Réseau Le Saint. They provide high-quality, fish and seafood products to both retail and food service markets across France. Prod Atlantique has grown steadily and now trades approximately 2,600 tons of finished seafood products annually. When they wanted to introduce automated equipment which could meet the needs of the market, while still maintaining their artisanal fish-workshop spirit, they chose JBT Marel as their technical provider.
We sat down with Romain Capet and Christian Pérou to discover their experience of the change, a year after the installation was complete.
When Romain Capet joined Prod Atlantique in 2020 as Industrial Director of the production site, his mission was to transform the plant from one highly specialized in salmon portions, to a more versatile workshop with a broader product range, especially fresh, ice-packed products. “We specialize in niche markets, seizing opportunities and aiming to delight customers. That’s our strength, but it needs exceptional flexibility.” Romain Capet told us. “The first part of my work was to modernize equipment, improve ergonomics, and align the site with the productivity, volume, and competitiveness requirements of the sector.”
Using the key priorities – optimizing raw material yield, improving energy efficiency, maximizing the value of seafood as a resource, which is increasingly scarce and expensive, and improving workstation ergonomics, to guide the change, Prod Atlantique began investigating technology providers to automate their artisan production line.
“Our discussions with JBT Marel went very well over time. We talked about the commercial aspects and the demonstrations of your equipment. The support started very early, with trials carried out in Denmark using our own fish. The results were impressive: within minutes, your technicians were able to adjust the machine, feed in whole fish, and produce beautiful fillets on the first try — whether the fish weighed 2 kg or 7 kg.
You quickly showed that you knew how to handle the raw material, measure it, process it, and produce high‑quality fillets.
Christian Pérou
Technical and New Installations Manager, Prod Atlantique
Prod Atlantique chose to integrate three major components: a semi‑automatic trimming table, a heading table with two operators, the automatic filleting machine, and a trimming table at the end. Keeping their manual pin‑boning and skinning equipment, to integrate everything together into a complete line.
The installation took place over three days in March 2025. “We stopped production on Thursday at noon and restarted on Monday. Of course, there were one or two weeks of testing with your technicians to ensure everything worked properly, but overall, we barely felt the interruption. It was quick and efficient, and within our planned timeline. A nearly instant start‑up.” Christian Pérou.
When Prod Atlantique decided to change how they did production, they didn't take a gradual approach. “We literally moved from artisan-level production to cutting-edge industrial processing, without going through an intermediary step,” Romain Capet.
Change management is one of the most difficult and crucial elements for any business. While Romain Capet and Christian Pérou could see the advantages of automating parts of the processing line, they also understood the change wouldn’t go smoothly without the support of their team.
“We had a team of salmon filleting operators who had been filleting salmon by hand for 20 years. Convincing them wasn’t easy. There were resistance and uncertainty. It’s like going from a Clio 1.4 diesel to a Formula 1 car— you don’t know how to drive it yet,” said Romain Capet. JBT Marel could support the change by providing strong knowledge sharing and solid support to manage the change and retrain the team.
Prod Atlantique invested in our latest filleting machine, the MS 2750. The MS 2750 takes all the best features of the MS 2730, and makes it more reliable, stable, and more intuitive for operators and line drivers. It allows operators to immediately pinpoint potential deviations and act precisely to optimize output and quality.
“It’s the heart of the process and it reassured both production teams and technicians,” said Christian Pérou. “After several months of operation, this has been confirmed: we trust the machine’s reliability and the consistency of the products it delivers.”
The MS 2750 is designed with easy to read and operate displays to minimize training time without reducing performance. Inbuilt sensors, adjustments, and automatic adaptations to product, mean it practically runs itself.
Prod Atlantique discovered this for themselves only a month after installation. “I had hired someone specifically to manage the line,” said Romain Capet. “He worked with us for a month and a half, then unfortunately was off work for three or four months. That created anything but peace of mind for me. But the machine turned out very easy to operate.”
Christian Pérou agreed, “During the period without a dedicated line manager, yields were slightly lower, of course, but still very good. Now that our colleague is back, he’s fine‑tuning and improving yields by 0.1 to 0.2%. But even without that fine tuning, the machine already produces excellent results.”
Around 70 to 80% of the performance we’ve achieved comes simply from having the machine. I’m talking about performance here — productivity is something else, more related to line & team management
Romain Capet
Industrial Director, Prod Atlantique
Making the leap from manual systems to automated equipment is challenging for any business. Ongoing support when customers need it is a crucial part of the JBT Marel philosophy.
“The support during the first days of production was excellent. We had technicians who knew the machine very well, who spoke French, and who stayed with us. I really felt supported, backed up, reassured,” said Romain Capet.
After installation, JBT Marel provided a full support schedule to help fine tune equipment, correct deviations, and answer any questions the Prod Atlantique team might have. For a full week every month. Technicians were on site providing support during Prod Atlantique’s workday. While support is key in the early months, we also understand that processors want and need to grow confidence, skills and control over their equipment and lines.
“Two of our technicians have since done technical training in Denmark, and things are progressing well. You’re passing the baton to us — meaning, at some point, we’ll be autonomous, and we’ll just need the occasional spare part,” Christian Pérou.
Has the change been what Prod Atlantique was hoping for?
“The yield and throughput we had budgeted for have been achieved. This now sets new, more ambitious goals for next year — which means even more collaboration with JBT Marel. The results exceed expectations. It’s nice to have a promise that looks good on paper. And then the result is even better than the promise,” said Romain Capet.
At JBT Marel, our teams want our customers to succeed, and we understand the importance of honesty and trust when building strong relationships. That’s why our teams ensure they understand what customers want from the start, so that what we deliver is what they need.
Prod Atlantique is the fresh seafood processing facility of the Le Saint Network. Based in Brittany, it serves all of the network’s seafood companies throughout France. They favor short supply chains to guarantee ultra-fresh products caught and processed within hours before delivery. Their philosophy is to deliver the right product at the right time with the best service. Prod Atlantique maintains an “artisan fish workshop” spirit, characterized by high flexibility and the ability to meet last‑minute, tailored customer requests — positioning itself between a large industrial processor and a small traditional fishmonger.
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