Westrock Coffee Poised for Growth in RTD Coffees

Launched originally as a means of aiding Rwandan coffee farmers, Westrock Coffee just opened an Arkansas manufacturing plant that includes three sophisticated packaging lines.

Pat Reynolds

Sep 5, 2024

This graphic mockup illustrates the kinds of containers Westrock can fill for its private-label customers.

Key takeaways:

The global RTD coffee market is projected to reach USD 64.78 billion by 2032, up from USD 22.44 billion in 2019.
American entrepreneurs with sufficient financial resources and an appreciation for what automated packaging machinery is capable of can bring profoundly beneficial change to developing countries.
Moving containers into and out of retort vessels doesn’t have to be the slow process it once was—automation has arrived.

Shown here are five of the 11 full-immersion rotary retorts used on the new can line. Also visible is the shuttle that carries baskets of cans to and from the retorts and the tracks on which the shuttle runs.When Scott Ford, former president and CEO of wireless data tech supplier Alltel Corp, sold that firm to Verizon in 2009 for $28 billion, he took some time to think about what his next move should be. As a charitable gesture, he also joined an economic advisory council serving Rwanda. When he realized that independent farmers in that central African nation were not getting nearly as much for their coffee as they should be, he knew what his next move had to be: build a private-label coffee business predicated on getting a fair wage to the small and independent coffee farmers of Rwanda.

The publicly traded business Ford launched in 2009 in his hometown of Little Rock, Ark., is Westrock Coffee. First came roasting and grinding, as Will Ford, son of Scott Ford and group president of operations at Westrock Coffee, explains. “The only way it made sense for us to become buyers of green coffee from small landholders in Rwanda was for us to have a roast and grind facility in a geographic location where we could adequately serve a range of private label customers by providing them with bulk coffee. Then in 2014 when the Keurig patents on single-serve coffee pods expired, we expanded into that format. In 2020 we bought S&D Coffee, one of the largest private-label manufacturers for quick-serve restaurants and convenience stores. But three weeks after the acquisition, covid shut down 80 percent of that foodservice customer base. Fortunately, S&D Coffee also had a small operation making coffee extract, a concentrated liquid coffee sold in drums and totes to food and beverage manufacturers who would use it as an ingredient in a finished food or beverage product. When covid caused demand in the foodservice sector to plummet, retail exploded. Suddenly demand for the food and beverage products in which our customers were using our liquid extracts also exploded. Before long those customers asked if, since we already were making the extract, we’d consider investing in finished goods packaging?”

The answer was yes, and that’s what led to the December 2020 purchase of a 570,000 sq ft plant in Conway, Ark., formerly used to make feminine hygiene and adult incontinence products. The plan was to use 25% of the plant for RTD coffee beverages. But within days of Westrock Coffee announcing the Conway purchase, the firm’s private label RTD capacity was four times oversubscribed. So Conway was, as Will Ford puts it, “rewired” to make room for three new lines for packaging RTD coffee products. One line is for multi-serve PET bottles distributed through the cold chain (see sidebar). The other two lines, one for single-serve glass bottles and one for single-serve aluminum cans, both include retort equipment, so the containers can be distributed and merchandised at ambient temperatures.Empty cans enter the system on an overhead depalletizer.

“Growth in RTD coffee has grown so rapidly over the past few years, and is poised to continue growing, that it’s led to a market that is extremely constrained,” says Shay Zohar, executive vice president of operations at Westrock Coffee. “Not only are there not enough manufacturers of high-quality coffee extract concentrates, there are none that are fully integrated as we are with the addition of the Conway facility. We already had a good starting point controlling so much of the supply chain as we did from green to roast to grind to extract. Now we’ve added packaging. It all comes back to our core mission of benefiting the farmers in Rwanda. We can best do that by scaling up, by opening new capacity that will let more private-label customers come into the copacking environment across multiple packaging formats.”

Versatile can line

The most highly automated of the three lines in Conway, says R.J. Macke, senior vice president of engineering at Westrock Coffee, is the can line. “We do a range of can formats on this line,” says Macke, “including an 8.4-oz slim, 12-oz sleek, 12-oz standard, and 16-oz standard. Changeover time is important, and while it’s not exactly a push-button operation, it’s still pretty quick. A change in can height, where the can diameter stays the same, for example, is 15 to 30 minutes. It’s a little longer when the can body diameter changes, and longer again if the lid goes from a 200 to a 202 because the seamer that applies that lid takes some time to change.”

Cans arrive at the Conway plant on pallets that are loaded into an overhead C-flow depalletizer from Alliance Industrial. Equipped with what Macke describes as “push-button changeover for different container heights,” it uses a mass container sweep to remove cans one layer at a time onto a mass conveyor. Empty can, full can, and full case conveyors were provided by Descon.

“We partnered with Descon because their line design and integration philosophy aligns well with our ideas,” says Macke.

Line pressure gradually narrows the massed cans into a single file, and then they pass over a Videojet ink-jet coder that puts a date code on the bottom of each can. “I find that coding the can bottom at the empty container handling stage is the best approach because you don’t have to deal with any wet or cold can bottoms,” says Macke. Right after coding is an empty can inspection system that removes any flawed or misshaped cans from the flow, after which cans go through an Entech Gatling Gun Can Inverter/Rinser that leads down to the floor level of the plant. Along the way the cans are inverted 180 deg, rinsed with ionized air, and uprighted again so that they’re ready to be filled. The Entech inverter/rinser has adjustable components to accommodate various can sizes with minimal time spent on changeover.

A twist rinser cleans the cans prior to filling.Once cans are down at floor level they are conveyed single file into a 124-valve rotary volumetric filler from KHS. “In my experience the KHS fillers hold good tolerances on fill level,” says Macke. “They also have very good can handling and minimal foaming.”

Zohar also has a high opinion of the filler. “We looked for a high-tech, high-precision filler that would provide us the best quality and versatility for the different products we run. There aren't many great, proven fillers that run canned items across a multitude of different sizes with extremely automated changeover and built-in CIP, which was absolutely critical to us. The KHS unit delivers that versatility in a proven unit that, in our case, fills up to 1600 cans per minute. It also allows us to create ultra pressurized cans for nitro beverages, for example, in addition to regular liquid coffee. We can even add ingredients directly into the filler itself to create new beverages, and in the fast-growing RTD coffee arena, it’s all about the beverages of tomorrow. With this filler, we’re ready for tomorrow.”

Seaming and inspection

After a 12-head seamer from Ferrum closes the filled cans they run through a Filtec fill level inspection system and a Teledyne TapTone dud detection system. At this point the cans enter a mass accumulator that leads to the next step in the in-line process, retorting, which is impressive to say the least.

Supplied by Allpax, a ProMach company, the Automated Batch Retort System includes 11 retorts lined up neatly in a row. These are not static retorts, where an operator pushes in a wheeled cart holding baskets full of containers and shuts the door so that the containers can be heated, cooled, and wheeled out. Nor are they semi-agitation retorts where the baskets get tilted and shook during the thermal processing cycle. These are full-immersion rotary retorts. David Cohen, technical sales engineer at Allpax, explains how they work.Can filling on a 124-head rotary volumetric filler hits speeds up to 1600 cans per minute. It also allows Westrock to create ultra pressurized cans for nitro beverages, for example, in addition to regular liquid coffee.

“There’s a top tank with water heated to around 275°F and then there’s the bottom tank. Uncooked containers in large baskets go into the bottom tank, the door is closed, and a connection valve is opened to let the water from up top flow into the bottom tank, fully submerging the containers. Also important is that because the coffee is quite viscous, we constantly rotate the baskets during the cook cycle so that the liquid contents in every can are evenly mixed. Otherwise it would take too long to get the center of the product up to the temperature needed to render the containers shelf stable. And with beverages like these, some of which contain dairy components, the quicker you get up to kill temperature and then back down to chilled the better your finished product will be.”

Zohar agrees that the use of full-immersion rotary retorts is especially important for RTD coffees because the taste and overall sensory qualities of such products are very sensitive and easily damaged by excessive exposure to high heat. “With this type of retort we run a shorter cycle,” says Zohar. “We come up to cook time quickly, and after a short duration we cool down quickly, too, thus preserving the flavor notes. Also, our cans don’t have burnt product on the outside as sometimes is the case with other kinds of retort systems, which really ruins the consumer’s overall drinking experience.”

Equally impressive is that the movement of cans into and out of the retorts is completely automated thanks to a shuttle system devised by Allpax. The shuttle runs north and south on tracks and has two berths—one is used to receive baskets of cooked containers from a retort and the other is used to carry baskets of uncooked containers to that same retort. To the right of the shuttle are the retorts, and to its left are a basket loading station and a basket unloading station. Uncooked cans are conveyed in mass into the basket loader, which sweeps layers of cans into retort baskets. When a sufficient number of cans have arrived at the infeed—basically the number required to form a layer-- they’re released into a sweep box that has front and back containment to tightly enclose the entire layer. Then the layer is swept forward into a basket. The basket is on an elevator, so once a layer has been swept in, the basket is lowered so that the next layer can be swept in. The system also incorporates an overhead vacuum pick component that picks a plastic slip sheet and places it on top of the layer that was just placed in the basket.The cartoner puts cans into paperboard cartons holding anywhere from 4 to 24 cans.

Now to the shuttle

Once the proper number of layers are in the basket, that basket is discharged onto the departure lane. When four baskets are in the departure lane, they’re pushed onto the shuttle. The shuttle then moves to a retort that has just finished its cook cycle. When the retort door opens, its four baskets of cooked product are pulled onto the shuttle’s empty berth. The shuttle then repositions itself so that the baskets on its other berth can be pushed into the now-empty retort. Once the retort door closes, the shuttle takes its load of cooked baskets to the arrival lane at the basket unloader. This component works much like the basket loader except in reverse. It sweeps cans layer by layer onto a discharge conveyor that takes the cans to secondary packaging located downline.

Worth mentioning from a water consumption and energy conservation standpoint is that a sophisticated recovery system lets Westrock Coffee recapture the hot water used to cook one batch of retort baskets and use it to cook another batch. It’s an approach far more energy efficient than having to bring cold water up to retort temperature every time a process vessel has to be filled.This tray packer/shrink wrapper unitizes cartons in corrugated trays.

“It's an incredible system, not only because it’s energy conscious and highly automated but also from a command and control perspective,” says Zohar. “And especially when we’re dealing with such throughput and the shuttles are handling such heavy weights. There’s also the food safety element that is part of any retort process. Not many suppliers of this kind of equipment can offer this kind of sophisticated automation while also including systems integration all the way to automated FDA reporting. So if you look at the Allpax system overall—cycle time, process time, repair and maintenance requirements—there are a number of advantages. They even tie into our autonomous maintenance systems, and they’ve provided us with resources to completely tie in all of their systems to give us predictive analytics accessed through our Rockwell-based system.”

Many private label customers’ cans filled on the Westrock Coffee line are preprinted. If so, they bypass the dual shrink sleeve labelers from Sleeve Seal. Then comes cartoning on a Douglas Spectrum MP-SSP system that puts containers into paperboard cartons holding anywhere from four to 24 cans. A Keyence laser coder puts date code information on each carton. Next in line is a KHS tray packer/shrink wrapper that unitizes cartons in corrugated trays. At that point all that’s left is palletizing on a T-Tek palletizer followed by a Wulftec stretch wrapper and a print-and-apply pallet labeler from I.D. Technology, another ProMach company.

As Zohar looks back over the past few years, even he is impressed with how quickly the facility went from planning to production—especially when the original plan did not call for three RTD packaging lines. “Projects on this scale typically take three to five years from concept to execution,” he points out. “But we set an aggressive timeline from the start, and it was 13 months from the first purchase order to the first production shift.” Stretch wrapped pallets get a print-and-apply label applied by this unit.

Macke recalls it this way: “We ran into challenges but we kept moving forward. One of the biggest challenges was that this was a paper products facility prior to being a beverage facility. When we got here there wasn’t any real drain system to speak of, so the infrastructure in general required some upgrades for that reason alone. We also went from a four-inch to a 12-inch water supply into the plant. We teamed up with Nabholtz Construction getting that done. Additionally, we’re in the process of bringing online our own wastewater treatment facility to help treat the water before we send it to the city.”

The timing on Westrock’s Conway investment could hardly be better. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global RTD coffee market size was valued at USD 22.44 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 64.78 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 8.54% during the forecast period.

“We’re in a good place,” says Will Ford. “RTD coffee is a fast-growing category and we’re primed to be the most efficient provider out there. In our existing plant footprint we have room to add six more lines. And should we choose to we can add about another 300,000 square feet to the plant.” PW

ESL for multi-serve PET bottles

While both cans and glass bottles filled at Conway get retorted and go into distribution at ambient temperatures, the PET line is for extended shelf life (ESL) beverages that are distributed and merchandised under refrigeration. “We looked into aseptic filling, but the private label customers we are serving were perfectly happy with ESL, largely because that is where a lot of these beverages are currently found,” says R.J. Macke, senior vice president of engineering at Westrock Coffee.

Bottles filled on the ESL line, which range from 16- to 48-oz, have a refrigerated shelf life of four to six months and reach consumers through retail as well as foodservice outlets. Unlike the beverages that go into cans, which are finished and usually flavored products ready to be opened and immediately quaffed, the products in PET bottles are more often black coffee that consumers customize themselves by adding soy or almond milk or pumpkin creamer.

The filler on the PET line is the Model 3010 from Fogg Filler, a ProMach company. It features a 30-valve rotary filler and a 10-station rotary capper. “It’s a great machine that we spent a lot of money on,” says Macke. “The level of sanitation is one place where it really delivers. Even the caps get UV sterilization.”

Immediately noticeable when it comes to the Fogg system is the number of rotary turrets through which the bottles pass by way of smooth star wheel exchange. At the front end of the filler is what Fogg calls the bottle blaster, a rotary turret where bottles have a liquid sanitizing agent sprayed inside under high pressure. The next station is another rotary turret that is a rinser where bottles are inverted and sprayed again with a sanitizing agent and then rinsed with water. Bottles now encounter a third rotary turret where bottles are inverted for yet another spray of sanitizer that’s delivered with an aggressive pulsing action to deliver mechanical as well as chemical sanitizing. The next rotary turret serves to rinse out the chemical sanitizer. At this point the bottles enter the actual filler, which is distinguished by an automated CIP system. And finally is a Fogg articulated jaw capper with a quick-change chuck that accepts a wide variety of closure types. Some Westrock customers use closures that include a foil liner that gets induction sealed a short distance downstream from the capper by an Enercon system. Other customers opt for a closure that includes a tamper-evident band, in which case the induction sealer is simply bypassed.

Zohar confirms Macke’s statement that the ESL filler represents a sizeable investment. “It was probably more expensive than any other machine in the Conway plant,” he adds. “But it delivers a log six bacteria reduction that lets us fill beverages cold without needing excessive amounts of preservatives that could alter the taste or prevent us from having a clean label. The filler is very suitable for the coffee beverages we’re putting into PET bottles, most of which are black coffee that consumers customize themselves by adding soy or almond milk or pumpkin creamer.”

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