Unique packaging system at Erin Baker’s includes a vertical form/fill/seal machine, a horizontal fill/seal machine and an overhead rotary scale that is moved from one machine to the other by a specially designed hydraulic jack on wheels.
By Jack Mans, Plant Operations Editor
A new packaging line at Erin Baker’s Wholesome Baked Goods, Bellingham, WA, includes both horizontal and vertical machines to produce different size bags of the company’s popular homestyle granola. The company was founded in 1996 to produce and market founder Erin Baker’s Breakfast Cookies; a breakfast or snack and installed a new packaging equipment from Weighpack Systems Inc. last year. “We looked at a number of different systems, but we wanted to run preformed 12-oz bags, and the Weighpack seemed to be the best suited for us,” says president Bryan Geschwill. “We also wanted to produce smaller bags on a form/fill/seal machine, so we also bought a Weighpack machine for that. We sent one of our production people to Weighpack to learn about the machines, and Weighpack came out here for installation and startup.”