Financial Times

James Finlay to acquire new tea bagging machines
James Finlay & Co (Colombo) Limited plans to expand production with the acquisition of a new generation of tea bagging machines.

James Finlay and tea bag maker Industria Macchine Automatiche - Italy (IMA) have jointly announced that James Finlay Colombo would be a launch customer of the new generation IMA C27 tea bagging machines. The deal involves three crimped envelope IMA C27 tea bagging machines, each producing 250 teabags per minute, being delivered to Colombo in June 2006.

"We have a very long association with IMA who have pioneered several innovations in the teabag industry," said Dickie Juriansz, chairman of James Finlay Colombo. "There is a growing market for environmentally friendly biodegradable products and with the arrival of these modern hi-tech machines next year, we shall be able to offer our customers an additional choice".

Juriansz said Colombo as a city has the highest teabag machine concentration in the entire world with over 450 machines of various makes. "The acquisition of the IMA C27 tea bagging machines would help Sri Lanka offer an increased range of teabag products from Sri Lanka, giving a further boost to the Sri Lankan tea industry."

The IMA C27 tea bagging machine features two knots at either end of the thread to join the tag to the filter bag, rather than the traditional aluminium staples, the two firms said in a joint statement. This means that the used teabag is biodegradable adding to tea's reputation as a one hundred percent natural product.

For those in a hurry, their cup of tea could now be prepared in a microwave oven, it said. The IMA C27 tea bagging machine was recently introduced at the Interpack 2005 Packaging Exhibition in Düsseldorf, Germany. IMA Area Manager, Alessandro Sereni said the firm was anxious to see the market reaction to C27, which was designed mainly for low labour cost and high flexibility operations.

"Since the very beginning, Finlays have been producing teabags with our machines, and they have been a major player in Sri Lanka for long, meaning that reliability and competitiveness must be there," he said."Finlays made a great step ahead in jumping into the staple-less technology and bringing the 'fully natural' (no metal, glue or plastics) concept into Sri Lanka." He said IMA introduced knotting technology into the tea bagging industry in 1999.

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