Case Study
La Colombe Torrefaction
Beverage companies often face multiple packaging design challenges. See how Flexcraft quickly solved, not one…but two challenges for La Colombe Torrefaction with their high volume injection molding and flexible rapid prototyping services.
Background
La Colombe Torrefaction is a U.S. based coffee roaster and retailer headquartered in Philadelphia. After twenty years of sourcing and roasting with care, the company now has cafés in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Challenge
Company founder and coffee visionary, Todd Carmichael, came to Flexcraft with an idea in mind, he just needed to find the right solution. Todd had already developed a game-changing, ready-to-drink coffee product. His initial idea was to provide his delicious product in a can but didn’t want to spoil the customer experience with the same feel as drinking a can of beer or soda.
In the midst of the project, La Colombe realized there was a potential problem with the overall package, and they needed our help quickly. The proprietary technology that allowed for the perfect light carbonation of the product also allowed for potential leaking and contamination of the can.
Solution
Armed with a few concepts, the Flexcraft team worked hand-in-hand with La Colombe Coffee Roasters creating concepts, testing, prototyping and improving the product’s package design until it was ready to complete for high volume injection molding production.
Before building a high cavity production tool, Flexcraft developed a single cavity tool that was used for initial testing and prior design verification.
After discussing their concerns, we quickly developed a few possible solutions, 3D printed each concept and hand-delivered them to the customer the following morning. Once we determined which solution was going to work best, we were able to turn around a prototype mold that very same night and had molded parts capable of fixing their problem within 48 hours of becoming aware of the issue.
Resolution
This new part was then developed into a high-cavity production mold to keep up with the customer demand of over 50 million parts per year.
In the end, the customer remains incredibly happy with Flexcraft’s customer service, quality high volume injection molding capabilities (30-50 million pcs/ year) and quick turn-around time. Because of this, La Colombe continues to sell their award-winning product nationwide.
Do you need high volume injection molding or Flexible Rapid Prototyping and manufacturing for your beverage packaging design?
Contact us today at 732.502.9500 to see how we can help.
Get StartedAwards
When it comes to packaging in the fast-moving beverage industry, innovation is everything. Just see the amazing press La Colombe has received for their product and innovative packaging design.
- Custom can pours foamy draft latte– “Specialized packaging technology adapted for La Colombe Coffee Roasters turns an ordinary can into a value-added delivery system for a foamy, microbubble-laden latte.”
- Packaging Digest, Top 5 in Packaging – “The foamy draft pour is made possible by a highly engineered valve inserted into a hole in the bottom of the can. We thought it was a pretty cool innovation and many readers agreed…”
- Draft Latte Powers La Colombe to Big Start – “La Colombe’s canned Draft Latte has been on the market for just over a year, but the innovative beverage is now the fastest growing RTD coffee in the U.S.”
- La Colombe Draft Latte captures 1% of RTD coffee share in its first year– “Changing RTD coffee through ‘obsessive innovation.’”
- La Colombe is changing the coffee market by making canned drinks people actually like– “La Colombe announced Wednesday that it has now taken over 1 percent market share of RTD coffee drinks across total U.S. food, making it the fastest growing RTD coffee beverage in the country.”