STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 43 Sponsored Content and extremely gentle product handling to suit a wide range of products to be filled (coffee with different densities, tea, and soluble powders). An on-line weighing system for each filled capsule guarantees excellent product quality, with data feed- back automatically adjusting the dosing unit, and by vision systems for lid posi- tioning. We interviewed Luca Cioffi, president and c.e.o, and Valentina Pareschi, e-commerce and com- munication manager to understand how Coind finds working with IMA. What is Coind's vision of market trends, with regard to capsule and carton types and in terms of materi- als? What is your plan for the medium and long term? The last few years have been marked by a major new topic – sustainability – which is becoming increasingly important on the Italian and international scene. It's an issue that has also influenced the coffee capsule market and the materials used for their packaging. As for the capsules, we are introduc- ing two different responses to the "no plastic" trend: compostable, 100% recy- clable capsules that can be disposed of in organic waste, and aluminum capsules which we expect to be disposed of soon in dedicated collection centers. There are some new introductions also with regard to formats. More and more brands and retail distribution players are oriented towards maxi-formats of 30, 40, or 50 capsules, designed both for consumer convenience as well as for lower con- sumption of packaging. As a company, we have responded to these market demands by investing in production lines capable of making both types of capsules with different packag- ing configurations. We are talking about €20 million investment over the last three years. At the same time, we are also tak- ing action regarding the materials used for our boxes. For more than a year all our cardboard has been FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] certified, i.e. the raw material used derives from responsible for- est management, with traceable and documentable origin. These are only a small part of the initiatives implemented by Coind to reduce its impact on the environment. Our medium- and long-term perspective is certainly to continue investing into sustainable solutions in terms of product, packaging, and certi- fications in line with market requirements. What were the production requirements, in terms of product type and produc- tion capacity, that led Coind to choose IMA as a partner? Given the complexity of the coffee capsule packaging process, we decided to turn to a world leader in the packaging sector, to have a reliable and structured partner able to take care of all the technical aspects of the process. In fact, when packaging cof- fee, attention must be paid to various aspects. First of all, it is necessary to respect all the basic hygiene and health rules, which is added to the complexity of managing fine particles (the ground coffee inserted into the capsule). Plus, the machines must ensure millimeter precision in welding the top lid to the cup of the capsule, so that the latter is perfectly self-protected and the coffee inside keeps its organoleptic properties intact until the moment of consumption. At the same time, the machines must have a certain tolerance in terms of the size of the empty capsules: it may happen that they differ from each other by a few microns, and this must not compromise the efficiency of the line. Talking about efficiency, is there any data you can share? How do IMA's ma- chines and lines achieve high standards of efficiency? The IMA filling machine is capable of producing 450 capsules per minute. If we think that on average every Italian drinks 4 coffees a day, IMA machines pack the annual quantity of coffee per capita in just over 3 minutes. To make another comparison, one year of production of a single machine (potentially equal to over 236 million capsules) could satisfy the coffee needs of the whole of Italy. This high standard of efficiency is achieved thanks to the use of fully automatic machines, which make it possible to minimize downtime due to the human component. Based on your growth target, do you foresee an increase in capacity that could involve IMA? The challenge of the next few years will not only be to better manage the workload on the production lines, but also to reduce their consumption and intervene in real time on anomalies. This is why we are developing a real-time performance monitoring solu- tion together with IMA, using machine learning algorithms. A complex project, which is part of the production efficiency process undertaken by Coind, aimed at improving the management of our plants and increasingly reducing our environmental impact. For further information visit www.coind.it/en/ and www.ima.it. Coind's Meseta capsules.

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