Firm installs UK’s largest coffee roaster in £3M investment
The 600kg Brambati drum roaster was now in operation, boosting the company’s previous production capacity of 3,600kg of coffee an hour by 70% and paving the way for further growth, it said.
The equipment is part of wider investment at the business, which has just opened a contingency coffee roasting plant on the same site as its main factory to house the roaster.
Replicate production capabilities
As part of the development, roasting and packing equipment has also been moved to the new facility from the existing factory to fully replicate its production capabilities. Both facilities are based at Lincoln & York’s headquarters at Elsham Wold Industrial Estate, near Brigg.
“The contingency roastery contains 2 x 120 kilo Brambati drum roasters which have been moved over from the current roastery to make room for the 600 kilo,” a spokeswoman for Lincoln & York told FoodManufacture.co.uk.
“It also features a brand new 30 kilo Brambati micro roaster which will be used for roasting smaller batches of high quality speciality coffee from now on.”
Fulfil orders without disruption
The contingency plant, which runs on an independent power supply, would allow the production team to fulfil orders without disruption if the main factory encountered problems, said the company.
The new facility also included additional office space to make way for new recruits, it said.
“Our customer base has massively diversified over the last five years and our new roaster and contingency roastery are just two of the ways we are responding to this and preparing for future growth,” said James Sweeting, md of Lincoln & York.
“We work with a range of different sized businesses across the out of home, foodservice, wholesale, vending and specialist retail markets.
‘Increasing capacity’
“This new roaster will allow us to fulfil high volume orders for our largest national and international customers, increasing capacity across our other roasting equipment.
“Having our own contingency operation has always been our ambition and to now be able to offer our customers a degree of reliability that no other UK roaster can is an attribute we are very proud of.”
Lincoln & York sources, roasts and packs coffee for retail and foodservice customers globally. It was officially founded in 1994 by coffee aficionados James Sweeting and Simon Herring.
