How 7 companies (just like yours) increased profits with packaging equipment
November 26, 2019
1. Bean Box scales up production to match plans for growth
Bean Box coffee of Seattle, WA roasts and ships coffee subscriptions and gift boxes nationwide. After hand-packing their freshly roasted coffee for years, owner Matthew Berk ran the numbers and realized manual packaging processes would not sustain their ambitious plans for growth.
So Bean Box did what most growing businesses do: They looked into options to speed up their production and packaging. This led to the purchase of a coffee pouch packing machine, and now Bean Box is scaling in ways previously thought impossible. In fact, with their new packaging machine, they were able to package over 10 tons of coffee (well over 100,000 bags) during their peak 2018 holiday season, and all this with only a single person operating the machine.
2. Econo-Pak scores a massive new packaging contract
When Pennsylvania contract packager Econo-Pak landed a game-changing contract to package millions of bags of snacks, they knew it was time to add ultra-fast, reliable packaging equipment to their extensive lineup. Additionally, the machinery needed to be available for quick shipment to their facility and easy for their employees to learn so they could be up and running in no time. In the contract packaging world, any time wasted is quite literally money down the drain.
Econo-Pak CEO PJ Wiebel had seen a video of the vertical form fill seal Velocity (the fastest VFFS in the world) and knew this would be a perfect solution. Thanks to a comprehensive used and in-stock equipment program, they got their packing machinery fast and produced over 3 million single-serve snack packs in the first month alone.
Read Econo-Pak's full story >>
3. Gibbsville Cheese upgrades to packaging simplicity
Wisconsin's Gibbsville Cheese is a fourth-generation family-owned cheese producer, with a reputation for providing the finest Wisconsin cheeses. Owner Phil VanTatenhove already had a cheese packaging machine but was experiencing difficulties with its size, complexity, and the growing amount of bags with improper seals it produced.
Freshness is paramount in the dairy industry, so bags that are not properly sealed can lead to product degradation and customer satisfaction issues, especially when you ship your fresh cheese products nationwide. Additionally, for a cheesemaker in a small town, a complex packing machine is overkill. They needed something simple, reliable, and easy for employees to use.
After finding nothing on the market that met their needs, they turned to a packing machine manufacturer in their backyard for a custom solution. Phil reports that their packaging machine just keeps running with minimal maintenance. As for replacement parts costs? They were almost zero: A pair of sealing jaws were the only parts that needed replacing in over a decade of use.
Read Gibbsville Cheese's full story >>
4. Death Wish Coffee gets ahead of rapid growth
Death Wish Coffee of New York was already considering switching from hand-packing to packaging automation when they won a free commercial spot during football's biggest game. Anticipating an influx of new orders from the ad premiere, it was 'go time' to find an automated coffee packaging system that would enable them to scale up production fast.
Like many coffee producers, they knew their business - coffee - very well, but needed expert guidance when it came to choosing the best packing machine for their needs. So they contacted a manufacturer that had application-specific expertise installing coffee packing machines nationwide.
Death Wish coffee is now producing coffee bags 5 - 6 times faster than before with their new vertical form fill seal machine. Their coffee packaging equipment does the work for them, allowing Death Wish to focus on what they do best - making the world's strongest coffee!
Read Death Wish Coffee's full story >>
5. Powers, Inc. finds packaging flexibility for all its products
Located in the Pacific Northwest, Powers, Inc. roasts, seasons, blends, and packages a wide variety of nuts and confections. Powers was facing the replacement of aging packaging machines and was on the hunt for new equipment that was flexible enough to handle their vast product line via short runs and a high volume of changeovers.
Company president John G. Cooley found what they were looking for in a modular and flexible vertical form fill seal machine. The equipment was tailored to their specifications and supported with training and service at every step. Powers, Inc. says that in over 30 years of using automated packing machines, this new VFFS machine runs better than anything else they've used.
Read Power's Inc. Full story >>
6. Mello Joy coffee successfully weathers economic downturn
Mello Joy of Louisiana had been using contract packagers to package their coffee for over 15 years. That all changed in 2017 when an economic downturn and increasing packaging costs caused them to reevaluate their strategy. They realized they could not sustain the cost of outsourcing their packaging any longer, so they began considering bringing it in-house by purchasing their own packing equipment.
After evaluating multiple packaging equipment manufacturers, Mello Joy chose a vertical form fill seal machine that featured the flexibility to package multiple popular coffee bag types: Both quad seal and fractional packs. Mello Joy's GM Mike Gregory fully expects the investment to pay for itself in less than 5 years from the cost savings alone. And now that they can package their coffee on demand, customers can't stop raving about the enhanced freshness of Mello Joy coffee.
Read Mello Joy's full story >>
7. Diamond Pet Foods expands sampling program
South Carolina's Diamond Pet Foods is a leading manufacturer of super premium dog and cat foods. Looking to grow its customer base, the company was on the search for a bagging solution that would have the flexibility to quickly produce different bag styles- especially sample bags, a size very important to Diamond Pet Foods' growth and marketing strategy.
Important factors influencing their choice was a desire for equipment that would fit into limited floor space and require minimal technical training to operate. They found a perfect solution in a compact vertical form fill seal machine, which easily fit into their current floorplan and had a short learning curve.
Read Diamond Pet Food's full story >>
What's your packaging story?
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