The Dinner Ladies soup up production

The Dinner Ladies, based in Matraville, NSW, was established in 2007 by two friends who create and deliver healthy, tasty prepared and semi-prepared dinners to time-poor and health-conscious families in Sydney and the surrounding suburbs.

The Dinner Ladies’ comprehensive menu offers hearty family favourites and gourmet international fare, including soup, pasta, curries, stir-fries and desserts.

Over the past 12 months, increased sales have meant that the owners, Katherine and Sophie, needed to investigate semi-automation for several products that were proving time-consuming and messy to hand dose.

Depositor trials conducted in The Dinner Ladies’ commercial kitchen using a Riggs Autopack Model 1000 Depositor gave The Dinner Ladies the confidence to invest in the food-grade piston filler, fitted with a suitable piston, barrel and filling nozzles for handling hot soups and sauces containing large particulates.

“The depositor has been great — we are getting busier and busier but our staff costs have stabilised, and we are handling product and finishing packaging much faster than we did before. The Riggs depositor is really going to help us take our business to the next level,” explained Katherine.

An advantage of the Model 1000 unit is that it has been designed for easy conversion to automatic production, with the simple addition of sensors and conveyors, should The Dinner Ladies need to achieve higher outputs in the future.