Global coffee giants Brambati S.p.A and Luckin Coffee have joined forces for a next-level project thanks to Brambati’s commitment to technical innovation and flexible solutions.
When Luckin Coffee was looking for a manufacturer to help expand its new roasting factory in Jiangsu, Shanghai, it looked no further than a company it had collaborated with over the past several years.
Italian coffee roaster Brambati S.p.A was commissioned to provide Luckin Coffee,a major chain outlet in China with more than 9000 shops, with a series of roasting machines, along with complete plant engineering.
“The agreement, signed in Shanghai on 7 November 2022, at the fifth China International Import Export event, includes the supply of a complete coffee production plant for the new factory,” says Brambati President Fabrizio Brambati.
The foundation stone for the production site, which involves a total investment of US$120 million with state-of-the-art emission control and energy-saving technologies, was laid on 16 December, with completion scheduled for early 2024.
“The contract signed with the Italian group represents a further step to provide high quality products and services with an excellent quality to price ratio, improving the efficiency of the production chain,” says President and CEO of Luckin Coffee Guo Jinyi.
“The introduction of a full set of Brambati technology ensures that during the roasting process, the roasting curve can be customised according to the coffee bean origin and flavour requirements to achieve precise control of the roasting temperature, hot air volume, and heat exchange efficiency between hot air and coffee, to achieve a perfect and stable presentation of the coffee bean flavour.”
Italian-made
According to the Brambati President, Brambati brings the most advanced Italian coffee technology to China, having been active in food processing machinery since 1945.
“Thanks to Brambati’s technologies, Luckin Coffee will be able to increase its roasting capacity from 45,000 tonnes to over 70,000 tonnes, adding a new production site to the existing one in Fujian, also equipped with machinery from the Codevilla- based company,” he says.
Brambati will oversee the fit-out of the 53,000-square metre site, from the loading of green coffee to the feeding of packaging machines. Thanks to the use of a cleaning system, the process will ensure a thorough cleaning of incoming green coffee that will then be stored and dosed to feed four roasting machines. This includes two machines capable of handling 360 kilograms per batch and two capable of handling 600 kilograms per batch, for a total roasting capacity of almost 10,000 kilograms of green coffee per hour.
“An additional 30-kilogram per batch roasting machine will allow the roasting of smaller batches, while another five kilogram per batch machine, located in the laboratory, will allow the testing of blends, composed of different green coffee origins, whose recipes can be used in the four larger machines. A series of destoners accompanying each roaster will then allow further selection of the roasted coffee,” Brambati says.
The fully automated coffee bean roasting production facility also includes various filtration systems to ensure a dust-free working environment, as well as the treatment of fumes from the roasting process. All processing involves the use of advanced emission and odour abatement technologies to make the plant suitable for meeting stringent environmental regulations. Brambati ensures that Luckin Coffee can achieve more ambitious targets in terms of emission reduction.
“Brambati conceives sustainable development as an opportunity for economic growth, valorisation of the company and of the personnel working in it, thus ensuring the complete satisfaction of customers and stakeholders. That is why we are committed to supporting our customers in achieving their sustainability goals on a daily basis, creating a virtuous circle of good practice,” says Brambati.
Luckin Coffee’s new production facility will also implement sustainable practices throughout the production process.
“The plant adopts energy-saving solutions such as a low-energy heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system, LED lighting system, and rainwater recovery system. It is also equipped with an energy management platform to intelligently control the energy consumption of the base operation to ensure effective reduction of emissions,” Jinyi says.
All production, thanks to Brambati’s technology, can be fully automated and managed from a control room, reducing operator intervention except for setting specific parametres.
Innovation and internationalisation
Brambati says the supply of innovative products to international clients is the result of Brambati’s commitment to revolutionising the global coffee industry. He says Brambati, over the decades, has become one of the world’s leading players in industry machinery, and invests an increasingly large share of its turnover in research and development.
“The new plant supplied to Luckin Coffee will be installed in a district capable of fostering the establishment of international coffee companies from all over the world, which constitute a true ecosystem for innovation and the creation of business opportunities,” says Brambati.
“Landing in such a strategic area of the Asian market represents a new step in the path towards strengthening our international leadership in machinery for the food and beverage industry.”
Luckin Coffee plans to rely on its two major roasting bases in Jiangsu and Fujian to form a self- processing supply network and supply higher-quality and fresher coffee to its growing café operators across the country.
“The commissioning of the two bases will also help Luckin Coffee form a more flexible supply advantage in the upstream of the industry and use the Kunshan site as a foothold to provide support for Luckin Coffee’s long-term development,” says Jinyi.
Jinyi says Luckin Coffee will continue to focus on coffee, adhering to the corporate vision of “creating a world-class coffee brand and making Luckin Coffee a part of people’s daily life”, and strive to provide customers with high-quality, cost-effective, and convenient products and services.
“We will also work hard to continuously promote the improvement of China’s coffee industry and the efficiency of the supply chain, which will help the high-quality development of China’s coffee to achieve steady and long-term development,” he says. GCR
For more information, visit www.brambati.it
This article was first published in the July/August 2023 edition of Global Coffee Report. Read more HERE.
