Melbourne’s specialty coffee roaster, Ranges Coffee, has installed award-winning packaging print machinery from Trimatt and is applying its in-house, short run, on-demand capabilities to provide customised coffee bags to contract roasting customers.
Ranges Coffee and sister company Re-Stox specialise in bespoke coffee roasting and hospitality packaging supplies, offering a custom printing service for coffee bags, wine bags, and carry bags for retail purchases, corporate gifts and takeaway food in the Australian market.
The companies are run by director Gavin Williams, an entrepreneur with a keen eye for innovation and opportunities to grow the business.
On a visit to the Melbourne International Coffee Expo, he was impressed by a demonstration of the Trimatt ColourStar AQ V, a fast, industrial digital colour print system. Noticing the machine could print on other packaging apart from coffee bags, he saw the potential for meeting the branded packaging needs of the business and its clients.
“We were looking for a way to add value to coffee and packaging customers, which the Trimatt system enables us to do, as we can now offer a bespoke solution to clients, with more flexibility over lead time and minimum order quantities,” he says.
“Added to this, we saw the new print system could improve our own coffee packaging, and to solve the issue of having to order custom printed bags in large quantities offshore.”
In the Trimatt ColourStar AQ V, Gavin Williams saw an affordable and economic solution that could replace the previous method of printing on hand-applied labels, or outsourcing print jobs for the company’s contract roasting clients and regional wineries, restaurants, cafés, and any business requiring carry bags.
Ranges Coffee’s customers have benefitted from being able to access custom printing in smaller quantities, without having to resort to printing overseas.
“The machine has opened additional possibilities for us as a business, via an additional service offering under our new site, branding4bags.com.au. Not only has this given us a tool to aid customer retention, but has created opportunities with new customers,” he adds, noting that this meets the demand from customers to have bespoke packaging that helps them stand out from competitors.
DESIGN INSPIRATION
The new printer has enabled the company to update and refresh its packaging for Ranges Coffee.
“The new design is inspired by our location near the Dandenong Ranges in the Yarra Valley. It is printed on white bags to give a cleaner, fresher appearance than our previous design, which was based on a black coffee bag,” explains operations manager, Lydia Williams, who graces the front cover of this issue of PKN along with Trimatt’s sales and marketing coordinator Mel McFarlane, in a nod to the Women in Packaging focus this month.
“As a family run business in the local community, we were keen for our packaging to pay tribute to our heritage, with the new design created by our local packaging designer – who also created our original packaging designs,” she says.
From a practical perspective, the new packaging also features additional information for customers on how best to store their beans, and easier identification of whether it contains whole beans or the type of grind for ground coffee.
“Being able to do short-run printing also means that some of our rarer coffees, such as single origins, will now be able to have their own custom printed bag, which previously wasn’t feasible.”
Lydia, who plays an integral role in the packaging company, has been leading the management of the new machine, exploring the possibilities and building the processes to fully utilise the new capabilities it affords the business.
Trimatt’s Mel McFarlane comments, “It was so great to work with Lydia, who picked up the mechanics and the software quickly, and is now training her colleagues ‘how to drive’ the Trimatt ColourStar AQ V.
“We are thrilled that Ranges Coffee and Re-Stox are benefitting with new markets, customers who keep coming back to a one-stop-shop, reducing stock storage space required, and of course, increasing retained profits,” she adds.
“We are delighted to partner with Gavin and Lydia, to have such a great relationship from the beginning in supporting them every step of the way.
“It is so wonderful to be in a position as an Australian machinery manufacturer to help so many other Australian companies manufacture in-house to profit more,” she says.
For Ranges Coffee and Re-Stox, the plan is to keep developing the custom-packaging side of the business, enabling customers to better present their brands, with the benefits of local service and more flexible options than they previously had access to. The plan expands to the newly launched business and website for printing short-run paper bags. The website lists several available print options, including examples, and allows customers to order directly through Branding4Bags.com.au
Following Trimatt’s win in March at the APPMA Awards of Excellence for the Australian Machinery Manufacturer 2024, the ColourStar AQ V is flying high with global enquiries coming in from Spain, the UK, India and Argentina.
Trimatt has expanded operations with a second factory to keep up with the increasing print machinery orders, and with its track record for innovation, it likely won’t be long before another winner emerges on its production floor.
This article was first published in the May-June 2024 print issue of PKN Packaging News, p18.
