Artisan sandwich maker Proper Tasty is using heat sealers from Soken Engineering for its natural Kraft card and plant-based films packaging used on its classic wedge range.
Handmaking up to 15,000 sandwiches weekly, the company’s classic wedge - all packaged in fully recyclable natural Kraft card and plant-based film – now accounts for over 50% of sales.
Delivering fresh sandwiches, sub-rolls, wraps and stotties to Northeast independents, shops, cafes, garage forecourts and major blue chip corporates, Proper Tasty also supplies its sliced and gourmet range to Yorkshire-based English Heritage tearooms and café sites. Delivering the highest quality, using regionally-sourced ingredients and where possible fully-recyclable eco-packaging to reduce waste are all equal factors that underpin this discerning ethical sandwich maker.
Evolving from a sandwich van and sandwich café concept in 2012 to a contract catering van delivery service, the pandemic curveball meant founder and managing director Byron Evans had to re-evaluate the firm’s future business approach. The company sold its five vans, streamlined its operation and ploughed everything back into its wholesale business model.
Now employing 25 staff, the adaptive, enterprising team continues to deliver pre-packed ‘Proper Tasty’ sandwiches using environmentally-friendly packaging. Its fully circular mission is focused on supporting all of the rural regions’ greener, fairer and stronger low-carbon economy goals.
Reducing waste through its procurement of eco-packaging and rebranding of the wedge sandwich range has resulted in a 35% increase in demand among premium customers.
Byron attributes this quantum leap to its distinct and credible eco-brand messaging. “The feedback from many customers is our eco-packaging combined with locally sourced fillings, such as cheeses and eggs from Wensleydale, meat from nearby suppliers, fillings from Driffield and bread from a local bakery keeps our footprint low and fits with their sustainability ethos,” he explains. “Particularly for prestigious regional customers like English Heritage, where their environmental goals are very aligned to ours.”
Handling the switch over to heat sealing the eco-packaged wedge range earlier this year was seamless. The four cavity H535AC heat board sealer from Soken (a subsidiary of Jenton International) gives Proper Tasty the consistent quality seal to maintain presentation. The machines also virtually doubles the shelf life of previously hand-packed pre-cut sandwiches to four days.
Maintaining this level of freshness and achieving an air-tight seal significantly reduces the volume of preventable food waste generated by uneaten sandwiches, reports Byron.
“Achieving a perfect and consistent quality seal not only protects consumers from sandwich leakage, it provides visual tamper evidence for heightened quality control and also prevents fast-tracking spoilage,” says Soken sales specialist Stephen Hawes.
On the busiest days, the Proper Tasty workforce can perfectly present over 2,000 wedged sandwiches, heat sealing eight eco-packaged sandwiches on their two Soken machines every three and a half seconds.
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