The artisan award-winning confectionery producer, acquired by Colin and Jenny Tyler in 2006, is raising funds through crowdfunding site Tesco BackIT to take its business to the next level.
Fairtrade luxury confectionery
The boost in finance will enable the Somerset-based business to buy equipment to manufacture the Fairtrade luxury confectionery.
It wants to use Fairtrade sugars and Fairtrade syrups to make a selection of products including; Fairtrade Cane Rum fudge, Fairtrade Madagascan Vanilla fudge, Fairtrade Salted Caramel Fudge and Fairtrade crunchy honeycomb.
“Fairtrade changes the way trade works through better prices, decent working conditions and a fairer deal for farmers and workers in developing countries,” said Colin Tyler.
“At the moment we are packing to ‘minimum weight’ which means every pack is at least the amount declared on the label. This is fine when we are packing regular shapes but we rather like the irregularity and home-style appearance that comes from a hand-broken process. So we want to produce our new Fairtrade range using a hand broken process.
“However, the irregular shaped pieces cause us a headache in the packing process and we will need to improve our weighing controls so that we can pack by ‘average weight’.
He added, investment in the right scales means it can have the whole process automated and keep the weights under control.
“We will be using Fairtrade sugar and syrup in the production of our new range which is more expensive than non-Fairtrade ingredients,” said Tyler.
“The extra price we pay for our ingredients goes towards a fairer deal for farmers and workers in developing countries but the investment from this campaign will also improve our factory efficiencies to ensure our customers shouldn’t have to pay a premium for Fairtrade.”
Tisomi flow wrapping systems
According to Tyler, the company has seen a 5% reduction in costs recently after partnering with Tisomi Italian manufactured flow wrapping systems to install one of its Miniflow400 flowrappers at its factory in Somerset, UK, to replace the manual process of weighing and sealing individual bags of fudge.
The Minflow400 flow wraps single cubes of fudge packed in printed film so that each piece can carry the brand message of Radfords’ own products or private label products.
“We chose the Minflow400 because it’s easy for the operator to switch the machine from wrapping cubes of fudge to bars, using Tisomi’s change-parts, with short downtime. The investment has reduced our prime costs by more than 5%,” said Tyler.
Tisomi’s Minflow400 is available in rotary, long dwell and box motion versions with a variety of automatic feeding systems and is capable of wrapping confectionery products up to 90mm in height and can handle films up to 400mm width.