FDBusiness.com

An excellent reputation for supplying high quality depositors to the food production
industry, has secured Riggs Autopack a recent order from Pieminister, one of the UK’s highly respected manufacturers of award winning pie’s.
Pieminister was established in 2002, when Jon Simon and Tristan Hogg teamed up to start a pie business in their home city of Bristol. From the company’s inception they set out to
make high quality pie’s, and in June 2003 after months of development work, the first Pieminister pie was created.
Soon to follow was a small pie shop, where Tristan baked and cooked the pie’s whilst Jon tended the shop and wholesale business. Since then the business has gone from strength
to strength and in 2008 they moved to larger premises in Bristol to accommodate the surge in demand. Now working out of larger kitchens and employing a team of full time
chef’s and bakers, their pie’s are now sold in the best delis, food halls, farmers markets and pubs throughout the UK. They are also available in the Pieminister cafe’s in Bristol,
London, Oxford and Trentham, and nationwide through Waitrose and Sainsbury’s.
As manufacturing increased, the company recognised that to keep pace with demand,
they had to move away from manual filling to a more automated form of depositing their
pie fillings. Their pie’s however only contain fresh, free range, high quality natural
ingredients, therefore it was imperative that any form of automatic depositing to be
introduced into production, not only had to be easily integrated into the existing kitchen
area but the depositing itself had to be highly accurate, damage free and provide superior
weight control.
Subsequently, it was vital that when purchasing a volumetric depositor, they chose an
industry respected supplier that could provide a depositing machine to meet all their
stringent production demands.
With almost 40 years experience, Lancashire based Riggs Autopack Ltd design, build and
supply high quality depositors and filling machines for the food production industry.
Offering hygienic depositing with outstanding accuracy and weight control, damage free
product handling and with a build quality second to none, Riggs Autopack’s depositors are
ideal for dispensing a vast range of food products including delicate pie fillings.
During the first meetings at Pieminister’s kitchens, Riggs Autopack were able to advise on the appropriate machine to enhance production. Following successful machine trials held
at Pieminister’s Bristol premises, they placed an order with Riggs for a Model 1000 Option
2 semi-automatic depositor.
The low level Option 2 depositor is supplied with a host of standard features and provides
many benefits to food manufacturers of all types and size. It’s supplied with a 100 litre
interlock hopper and is fully mobile with lockable castors. The machine is hygienic and
quick to clean, simple to use and easy to maintain, and provides highly accurate
depositing of many food products including hot or cold pie fillings.
Due to the versatility of this depositor, it can also be operated either as a stand alone semiautomatic
unit or as part of an fully automated filling line. Pieminister originally purchased
the machine as a stand alone unit but as they’ve got busier it’s now being used on an
automated filling line. It has been easily integrated into the company’s production kitchens
and is fulfilling all manufacturing demands.
Pieminister’s production manager Mr Simon Drury is delighted with the machine. He
commented: ‘‘After extensive research of who and what was available, it was clear that
Riggs Autopack offered us a significant step forward. They understand our industry very
well and obviously that helps. They understood our needs and production concerns and
have now provided us with an effective and versatile machine solution.”
“The equipment is easy to use with impressive change over times, ideal for coping with our level of production. The depositing accuracy is excellent and we have been thoroughly impressed with the level of service received from their staff. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to others.”