Michelle’s Bakery Automated Flow Wrapping for Famous Sweets
May 05, 2015
Michelle’s Bakery is a local favourite near Rutherford College, North Carolina. As well as their grill, Michelle’s Bakery distributes a large variety of home-made cakes, pies, biscuits and other desserts. Michelle’s Bakery recently trialed a new Rose Forgrove Merlin Blu flow wrapper. The company needed a flow wrapper that could manage the packaging of various smaller bakery items as well as whole pies and larger bakery products for retail display.
Tammy Cannon, co-owner of Michelle’s Bakery, oversees the packaging of their bakery product lines, and was happy to accept the Merlin Blu on a trial basis. The company is positioned for substantial growth and required automated packaging equipment. Michelle’s Bakery has since purchased the same Merlin Blu, which consistently wraps biscuits day after day. One of the things that appealed to Cannon was the hygienic features, with tool-less removal of guards, which provides fast, easy cleaning of the flow wrapper.
Another benefit of the Merlin that led to a final sale is its ability to handle a wide range of products with its easy-to-use adjustable forming box and wide jaws. Taking advantage of these features and the user-friendly operator interface, Michelle’s Bakery can easily switch from wrapping small biscuits to full size pies. The B&R Industrial Automation control system with colour icon controls make it easy for Cannon’s team to set packaging parameters and make quick changeovers.
Ryan Glenn, Horizontal Sales Leader for BW Flexible Systemscoordinated the project with Michelle’s Bakery. He comments, “I initially bought one of Michelle’s Bakery pound cake slices while travelling. I was impressed with their high-quality bakery products. Their close proximity to our global headquarters in Duncan, SC, where the Merlin Blu is manufactured, made them an ideal candidate for a beta installation. The Merlin Blu is an ideal flow wrapper to help them achieve packaging that effectively displays Michelle’s Bakery tasty treats while maintaining the freshness of their products. I look forward to partnering Michelle’s Bakery as their operations continue to grow.”
Currently, Michelle’s Bakery is using the Merlin Blu to wrap their famous chocolate oatmeal cookies in single-serve packs at 50 packs per minute, as well as whole coconut pies at a rate of 25 per minute.