Responding to the resurgence of paper coffee pods, IMA Coffee Hub presents its latest automated technologies designed to enhance sustainability and process control.
While automation is leading the coffee industry’s era of innovation, sustainability is also fuelling this significant period of technological advancement. Current market demands place the environmental impact of a product alongside the desire for speed, consistency, and precision.
For Italian manufacturer IMA Coffee, a specialist in processing and packaging machinery, tracking the shifting market to identify new trends ensures it can help its clients to meet demands. As such, it recently introduced a new range of machines and services tailored to the increasing requirement for environmentally conscious production processes and packaging.
“Today, packaging technologies must be flexible enough to accommodate not only varying production speeds but also different packaging materials,” says Matteo Barbarossa, coffee expert and Business Developer for the Australian and New Zealand markets at IMA Coffee Hub.
“Beyond providing end-to-end coffee processing and packaging solutions, IMA Coffee is committed to strengthening sustainable practices to reduce emissions during roasting, and testing alternative packaging materials. We implement advanced eco solutions throughout the industrial process to help build a more environmentally friendly industry.”
Matteo highlights the growing demand for compostable packaging materials. In response, IMA Group established IMA OpenLab, a network of laboratories and testing facilities focused on researching sustainable materials and optimising production processes.
“We are seeing a growing number of companies investing in sustainable packaging techniques to offset the environmental impact of traditional aluminium and plastic packaging,” he says.
“IMA offers a range of packaging machines for single-serve coffee, including capsules and filter paper pods. Our capsule filling machines are highly flexible and capable of handling a variety of materials, including compostable and recyclable options, whether for primary or secondary packaging.”
The demand for compostable coffee capsules is expected to rise over the next five years, something IMA believes is due to consumers becoming increasingly health conscious and aware of the environmental impact of traditional capsule packaging.
At the same time, Matteo says an increasing number of coffee producers are experimenting with or returning to filter paper coffee pods.
“These paper pods, often known as Easy Serving Espresso (ESE) pods, are compostable, which makes them a more environmentally friendly option. This shift towards paper pods has been particularly notable in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, where coffee consumption is high and sustainability is a concern,” he says.
For both soft and hard pods, Matteo says IMA Coffee’s packaging machines can meet any production requirement, covering all aspects of coffee pod manufacturing – from consultancy and design to production planning and turnkey solutions.
“Soft and hard coffee pods are processed at different speeds in equipment designed to ensure precision, but also flexibility. Packaging can be conducted in a modified and conditioned atmosphere, and pods can be stacked individually, protected in heat-sealed envelopes and packed into heat-sealed vertical pouches or cartons” he says.
IMA Coffee Hub recently partnered with turnkey processing and packaging provider Esko Australia to provide IMA roasting and packaging technologies to the local coffee market. With a 24-year history representing European equipment manufacturers in the region, Matteo believes Esko is IMA’s ideal match thanks to their shared principles of innovation and customer focus.
“At Esko Australia, our main goal is to provide innovative and customised solutions for our customers. We work collaboratively with the customer and suppliers to provide the best experience possible,” says JJ Wong, Engineer and Business Development Manager at Esko.
“IMA Coffee shares the same customer- and market-focused values and consistently demonstrates willingness to look at all requests, such as finding solutions for height and space limitations, especially in some of Melbourne’s heritage buildings.”
IMA Coffee’s commitment to sustainability and innovation is further reflected in its Coffee Control Room product, a multifunctional automated software package featuring control systems for roasting and packaging to optimise overall efficiency.
Matteo says the new technology is designed to provide flexibility and consistent quality to medium- and large-scale roasters through a comprehensive range of integrated solutions.
“For coffee producers, product customisation and packaging quality assurance are critical factors. This led us to design the Coffee Control Room, which enables producers to fully control process parameters through its automatic data exchange feature,” he says.
“Users can monitor production lines through the system’s smart monitoring and overall plant control functions. The data exchange feature automates production flow from raw coffee reception to final packaging, offering complete visibility and traceability of the product.”
Matteo says Coffee Control Room is a simple, integrable system. The unified dashboard combines roasting and packaging data with plant management systems, creating a fully automated end-to-end solution.
“IMA Coffee Hub aims to meet the demands of the rapidly evolving coffee market by developing high-quality solutions that enhance our customers’ performance,” he says.
“We’ll be glad to meet new potential customers at MICE2025, along with our partner Esko, to present our knowledge, expertise, and offer for the coffee sector”.
For more information, visit ima.it/coffee
This article appears in the February/March 2025 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
