Case study - Island Roasted Coffee

"As an artisan micro-coffee roaster, we were looking for a cost-effective way of increasing our productivity and output without having to completely up-root the business in order to fit in large scale weighing and packing equipment.  The Phil 500 came in at a footprint and price-point that could fit in with our existing packaging line and help us achieve a greater packaging capacity.  It also allowed us to add to our product line by making small 50g packs economically viable by cutting the packaging time down by a third!

The machines are simple to install, use and clean and as such provide the additional capacity we needed, without the huge costs, time and learning outlays that the industry standard equipment requires.  As we operate over multiple sites they can easily be put into action where we need them the most and we can always add in additional machines as we grow further. In short, a solid yet simple bit of kit at a fraction of the cost of the industry standard." Larry Burgess - Partner

Based on the Isle of Wight, Island Roasted Coffee has been in the industry for over 20 years. Initially, an importer of great coffee from Italy, to supply their own ‘Caffe Isola’ in Newport. In order to be truly an artisan and authentic to boot, they started roasting their own coffee and have grown considerably from there.

Using only ethically and sustainably sourced coffee directly from the producers, ensuring them the best price, and then hand roasting their coffee in small batches using drum roasters, to maintain the authenticity of their artisan title. Hand packing the finished product was imperative to them, a company with true passion and integrity for what they do.

The Problem
As with any up scaling of a company, the packaging process was proving somewhat of a bottleneck, and reducing efficiency on the production line. Potential product lines were not utilised, as packaging them was not viable and cost-effective. They needed a solution that wouldn’t break the bank and require a large amount of space, and also a solution that wouldn’t compromise their authenticity of the Hand roasted and hand packed nature of their genuine artisan title.

The Solution
Having spoken extensively with Larry, production manager at Island Roasted, it was apparent that one machine wasn’t going to be enough to do everything they needed it to do, so after sending several bespoke videos, and tailoring the machine’s output to suit them specifically, they chose a Phil 300, and a Phil 500 to pack both the ground and whole bean coffee. The super exciting part is that other weights now became a viable option, increasing their product offering.