Manual Bagging vs. Automation
As someone who started as a specialty coffee roaster myself, I know how much pride roasters take in every step. From sourcing to roasting and even packaging, it’s all part of a brands unique identity. When I founded Velodrome Coffee Company, we did everything by hand on a 2 kilo roaster fueled 100% by passion. Every bag we filled was a labor of love, but it was also incredibly time-consuming.
Manual bagging worked fine when we were roasting a few dozen pounds a day. But as demand grew, the limitations became painfully clear. Long hours, repetitive motion, inconsistent fill weights, it just wasn’t sustainable. We needed a better way to package coffee so we could continue to have time to cup every batch and ensure quality. As new wholesale accounts were added, then a grocery distribution deal, it wasn’t the roasting that was taking up the majority of production time after upgrading to a 12 kilo machine…it was packaging all that coffee. We invested in a SOVDA Precision Fill bag filler and it completely changed the game.
Efficiency Gains with Fillers
Introducing an automated coffee bag filler didn’t just make us faster, it made us more consistent which is incredibly important to the customers and our bottom line. What used to take us a full afternoon, we could now do in tandem while roasting by loading the machine and quickly filling bags while in between crucial periods of running the roaster.
When I eventually joined SOVDA, I brought this first hand customer experience with me. Roasters need a filler that’s accurate, easy to clean, intuitive to use, and designed for coffee people by coffee people. That’s why our Precision Fill and Precision Fill Mini are built to deliver professional-grade results in any roastery, whether you’re just getting started or producing at scale. Switching between 5lb wholesale and 12oz retail bag sizes is just a couple of button presses on the touch screen. And the best part? After we set it up and calibrated our fill recipes, the machine never required adjustment or repair in the 5 years it's been in operation! The best machine in your roastery is the one you don’t have to think about because it just does what it’s supposed to.
How Fillers Reduce Waste and Labor
At Velodrome, we quickly realized how much was wasted during our old bag filling process. When you’re hand-filling bags, even a few extra grams per bag adds up to a lot of coffee…and a lot of money over time. The longer the day goes, the less you can get every bag accurate to the gram. The tedious process becomes mind numbing and you start to rush through it to just be done. I think we’ve all been there in the roastery when a massive order is trying to get out the door the day before a holiday… The Precision Fill Mini eliminates that problem. Its sensitive load-cell ensures every bag hits the exact target weight, every single time.
How SOVDA Packing is Set Apart
SOVDA’s packing equipment was born out of real roastery experience. We’ve been in your shoes. We’ve also been in roasters around the globe and know that every roastery is different and has a unique production space. That’s why we designed our equipment to be adaptable and compatible with other SOVDA pieces. Combining our Lift system to a Precision Fill or Precision Fill Mini can help create the ultimate automated packaging line. Pair the hopper with our destoner upgrade to remove foreign objects in the process with no additional operator input required. Our equipment ultimately creates more time, elevated coffee, and a better quality of life. Instead of focusing on the tedious repetitive tasks in your business, you can focus on building community, driving your passion, and drinking better coffee.
Order Your Precision Fill Mini Now
If you’re ready to level up your packaging process, take it from someone who’s been there, automation is worth it.
Order your SOVDA Precision Fill Mini today and see how it can transform your roastery, just like it did for mine-
