Together with our partner from Ireland - Codico, we have implemented an offline device for automatic labelling of their packages (tea, coffee, spices, seeds)
Suki Tea Makers - a passion for tea leaves born from travelling
The company SUKI – Tea Makers, based in Belfast, started its history in 2005. After their Asian journey, passionate business partners Anne Irwin and Oscar Woolley decided to share their ethically sourced teas with the world. In the early days, it was all about great tea and having fun and they showed that they didn’t need a complicated business plan to deliver top quality products all over the world today.
This film will tell the best about the company itself:
SUKI Tea is not an average tea. It not only tastes great but also looks fantastic in their new, plastic-free packaging
Our goal:
Suki Tea is a top quality product. The production does not take place on a mass scale and therefore the design of our device had to allow for quick changeover to another product both in terms of size and type of packaging (bag/ziplock pouch, cardboard box) and type of tea on the label. Such changes are made at the customer’s premises several times per day.
“Continuous growth of production required from us meant that the need to automate our production increased. Hand-labelling took up one third of our production time and with increased sales year on year, we needed to find a solution! We have many kinds of teas, in different packaging and weights. We needed a device that would label our packaging, but at the same time it would be so versatile that we would use it for most of our bags and cartons. It also needed to be highly accurate in its application for presentation purposes on the supermarket/deli shelf. Our supplier Codico Distributors Ltd offered us a solution from Intrex that met these requirements and worked with us closely to ensure our needs were met. The machine is both simple to use and a joy to operate. It’s just one of those business decisions that we wish we had invested in years ago” – Annie Irwin – Co-owner, Suki Tea Makers.
Understanding the customer’s needs, together our partner from Ireland, we proposed a device that automatically feeds the packaging from the infeed conveyor and then automatically applies the labels precisely. The machine is equipped with a large product infeed tray/conveyor which allows for loading of high number of packages at the same time so that the machine operator can perform other activities during his work.
Automation of those processes allowed to increase the work efficiency but most of all to guarantee high quality of label application, unachievable for manual work. The machine is used to apply a main label and even small round promotional labels.
Often this type of machine is equipped with a label overprint device, for example with V Series thermal transfer printers or direct inkjet overprint on the packaging itself with “spit” type inkjet printers.
“Our task was to create a universal labelling solution. A machine capable of applying labels precisely to various zip bags. From large commercial to small transparent promotional bags. An additional challenge was to label flat cartons on the same machine. Thanks to the excellent cooperation with Suki Tea – the end customer and Codico – our partner in Ireland, we managed to meet the challenge and learn a lot about really good tea.” – Daniel Bartkowiak, P&A and TTO Sales Manager, Intrex
Main features and advantages
- Quick change-over to different product formats
- Universal for both types of products: bags and flat cardboard boxes
- Automatic feeder with easy to load infeed conveyor
- High precision label application
