“As a manufacturer, if you want to be the best, you must invest in the best. That has been the approach adopted by Chewters Chocolates, as it has undertaken a project to automate its production and packaging lines, helping to make it more productive and efficient,” the company said.
Chewters said it has invested in new checkweighing, metal detection and x-ray product inspection systems from Mettler-Toledo.
“We are trying to become a world-class facility” said Arjan Cheema, Chewters Chocolates’ project engineer.
“Mettler-Toledo equipment is the industry standard. Chewters relies on their equipment to achieve precision on the weights of our bags - we are looking to eliminate any deviations greater than one gram, depending on the package. The metal detection and x-ray systems help us to avoid false rejections associated with our packing lines."
The company’s 55,000 square foot production and packaging facility in Delta, British Columbia, is now a highly automated operation, capable of hitting 15,000 metric tonnes of production per year,
Chewters said that with the recent transition to a third shift the hardware will allow it to run 24 hours, 5 days a week for every week of the year.
The company produces its all-natural ChocXO brand, Organic Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups, and organic 85% dark chocolate ChocKeto Snaps.
Filling a gap for low-sugar, high quality chocolates with no additives, the products taste less bitter than most dark chocolate and Chewters said it has focused on the nutty and fruity flavour of the cacao beans that make up 85% of the chocolate’s content.
With a customer base including some of the largest wholesalers and retail chain stores in North America, and with COVID-19 having seen increased demand for its products from consumers stuck at home, there was a need to keep up with demand, which precipitated the investment in new technologies.