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How Trimatt is solving a market need for coffee companies wanting to save time, effort and money on packaging options.
It took Espressology Chief Operating Officer Ged Ryan about 10 seconds to understand how Trimatt could, in his words, “supercharge” the private label roasting company.
In mid 2023, Ged’s attention was caught by an email from Trimatt, which led to further research about the Melbourne-based packaging company.
“Quick printing on coffee bags has always been something that we’ve wanted to solve,” Ged says.
“We could never quite solve the short- run, short-turnaround, instantaneous print on a coffee bag, in a way that was A) economical and B) high quality.
“The email [from Trimatt] had a link to a video on their website, which showed me the bags going through the printer and the bags even had valves, which has always been an issue for the coffee industry.”
After Ged touched base with Trimatt, he was soon on a plane from Sydney to tour the facilities and meet staff. He says a strong relationship was quickly formed, and he discovered that Trimatt’s ColourStar AQ printing machine was perfect for Espressology’s needs, primarily to print short-run, customised coffee bags, packaging cartons, and takeaway bags for wholesale and contract roasting customers.
“We don’t buy machines unless we meet the people behind them, and [Trimatt] had a good feel to them,” he says.
“The fact that they are Australian-based [is important] – in our industry [if you buy from overseas businesses], there’s less local support. All machines break down occasionally, so being local was important to us – and the fact they built machine themselves was even better.”
The ColourStar AQ is one of Trimatt’s flagship machines. It won the 2023 Product Innovation Award for Coffee Accessories at the 2023 Melbourne International Coffee Expo and is also a finalist in the Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association Awards of Excellence, with winners to be announced on 13 March 2024.
The machine features an automated feeder, an angle-adjust print head for valved bags, and its organic pigment inks are waterproof and lightfast. It can print 120, one-kilogram bags per minute, at 1200 dots per inch print quality.
“It has helped us cut down a ton of labour, cut down on costs, and it has improved our product offering ¬– they’ve supercharged us,” Ged says of Trimatt.
The name ‘Trimatt’ stems from the founder’s name – Matt (Johnson), while Tri represents the three product platforms Trimatt offers: Product handling, product identification and product inspection.
Matt, now Systems Director, started the company in 2005 and says the relationship with Espressology is a prime example of Trimatt’s ability to solve clients’ problems.
“The main problem we solve [with clients in the coffee industry] is the long lead times that customers were facing when they wanted to order personal branding of their products,” he says.
“We take great pride in helping businesses come up with a better way to do things. For example, the ColourStar AQ gives Ged and his company the reach and capacity to meet what their clients need – that’s what we’re all about, coming up with solutions that fill a particular void that clients have.”
Sustainability is another major focus for Trimatt and Matt says the company can help coffee roasters and cafés that are trying to be more environmentally responsible.
“What we’ve brought to market is the ability to reduce waste – we don’t overpackage things, we can still make packages attractive, but our machinery contributes to a better [more sustainable] way of living,” he says.
“With coffee roasters, there’s a huge supply chain involved with getting a printed paper bag – the cost and logistics involved are huge compared to giving businesses the flexibility to print something on demand, without the long and often tedious, expensive, and [environmentally] damaging process that they are used to.
“There’s a growth in businesses that are prepared to make their packaging more environmentally friendly. We will continue to develop our existing products to be more suitable, flexible, and sustainable.”
For Ged and his team at Espressology, the ColourStar AQ’s ability to print high-quality graphics on eco-friendly bags has been a game-changer.
“We’re now printing on eco-friendly bags,” he says. “We’ve got some that are yellow-bin recyclable, so it’s great that we can print on curbside-recyclable [material].
“It’s mind-blowing really. It gets rid of the need for [putting] stickers [on bags or boxes] and the labour associated with it, which has been big for us and our clients.”
Matt adds that Trimatt continues to review and experiment, with some innovative developments in store.
“We have some new technologies coming out in the marketing and branding space that the industry will find interesting. We’re really excited to launch at [Australasia’s Processing and Packaging Expo] this March the new ultra-wide ColourStar AQ BoxPro designed for customising boxes and shippers,” he says.
For more information, visit www.trimatt.com
This article appears in the February 2024 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
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