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Maipac

On their back of their highly successful coffee machine repair and sales business, last year the Maione family spread into packaging roast coffee into capsules.

Manager Paul Maione says, “Coffee Complex has been around since 2006 as a family-run business, importing and distributing a top Italian range of coffee machines, grinders and associated products and acting as a leading service centre for both commercial and domestic machines.

“According to research, about 11 million Australians drink coffee everyday — and consume up to three million coffee capsules daily as part of that. Being in the coffee industry with Coffee Complex, we could see where the market was headed, so in 2016 we started Maipac as a contract-packaging company specialising in in Nespresso®-compatible capsules.

Initially, Maipac’s capsules were in a foil over-wrap pouch; they then coded the customer and blend name onto the packet with an inkjet printer. The resulting coffee capsule had a 12-month shelf life.

“But while that packaging was standard, we didn’t see it as environmentally responsible — let alone the shelf space that individual pouches took up. So we decided that method was past its use-by date and began researching something else.

MAIPAC

INDUSTRY:FOOD & GROCERY
APPLICATION:BEST BEFORE DATE, BLEND, COMPANY NAME + LOGO ONTO COFFEE PODS
TECHNOLOGY:LASER
Laser Marking Services

BACKGROUND

Maipac is a family-owned, coffee-capsule business, founded in 2016 on the back of a wellestablished commercial and domestic coffeemachine repair and sales enterprise.

With Australians consuming three million coffee capsules a day, the contract-packaging company specialises in Nespresso®-compatible capsules. It offers a complete production service, handling from roasting to packing capsules into retail boxes ready for distribution.

SITUATION

Maipac sees coffee capsules as a good way for its customers to grow their business, by acting as a gateway to their other product offerings. Coffee capsules have progressively found their way into workplaces then people’s homes and even cafés, and so good growth opportunities exist for coffee roasters who meet consumer demands in this sector — but it must be high end, offering “an exceptional capsule experience for the end consumer”.

The Adelaide-based firm was looking to replace its packaging with a more environmentally responsible solution, and needed a flexible, high quality coding solution.

Laser Product Marking

BUSINESS NEEDS

Maipac offers its customers personalising coding so they can further promote their own branding; this includes capsule seals that match each customer’s corporate colours.

Maipac wanted a flexible coding or labelling solution that would allow it to personalise information for different customers with text and graphics, giving a high quality finish no matter the capsule seal colour.

It also wanted a solution that would allow it to grow and expand output as new customers are brought on board.

PROCESS NEEDS

Initially, Maipac’s capsules were in a foil overwrap pouch, with customer and blend names coded onto the packet with an inkjet printer. The resulting coffee capsule had a 12-month shelf life.

However, Maipac didn’t see this standard packaging as environmentally responsible. Individual pouches also took up too much shelf space. After researching more advanced packaging, Maipac chose to move to an hermetically sealed, stand-alone capsule. This no longer had the over-wrap, but the airtight capsules still give a 12-month shelf life, as well as being a compact and cost-saving packaging solution. S

Laser Product Marking

Solution

After “a lot of research into different companies and different equipment”, Maipac chose Matthews, for the coding and labelling specialist’s expertise in solution design and experience with installing a laser coding system.

OUTCOME

Matthews suggested a laser to mark customers’ company names and logos, as well as the blend and best-before date onto individual capsules.

After numerous trials and tests, including with inkjet technology, the laser continually exceeded standards, and offered the flexibility that Maipac was wanting.

With all the artwork loaded into the system, operators simply bring up the relevant artwork for that run. New artwork can be added as needed.

Current output is 70 capsules a minute, giving Maipac lots of room to grow.

“They did numerous trials and tests with us, and we came to the conclusion that the laser was the answer to achieve what we wanted... We’ve never looked back since.”

— Paul Maione, Manager, Maipac

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