Having the right spice packaging equipment for your operations is critical to your business's ability to grow. That’s why we were thrilled to sit down with Brett Cramer, Owner of The Spice Lab®, who shared how his business is thriving since partnering with Spee-Dee® to add a new, high-speed rotary filler with integrated checkweigher to his company’s packaging operation.
Read on to see what Brett had to say about our spice packaging equipment, and his experience working with Spee-Dee!
Spee-Dee: Tell us about The Spice Lab and your growth journey.
Brett Cramer: I'm Brett Cramer from The Spice Lab in Pompano Beach, Florida. We pack seasonings and spices for food service, retail, and B2C customers. We've grown substantially over the last 15 years—from my wife and I making gift kits on the kitchen table to having 75 employees and packing millions of jars a year. The business has grown about 25-30% annually over the past three to four years, and we're always needing more production—quicker, cheaper, better quality. That's what brought us to Spee-Dee in Wisconsin to pick up one of their new high-speed rotary filling machines.
We're not the super mega giant that makes billions of the same item yearly. We make many thousands to hundreds of thousands of one item, doing a lot of short-run stuff in the 5,000 to 20,000 range. I needed something that covered that 10,000-and-up range where I'm not spending a day cleaning a machine for a three-hour job.
Spee-Dee: How did you discover Spee-Dee?
Brett: I was walking through trade shows looking at different fillers because I knew I needed something to gain speed. Our semi-automatic and slower automatic machines weren't keeping up with company growth. I also needed something that takes fewer people and less time for changeovers.
I made them tear the machine apart a couple times at Pack Expo—drove the sales people nuts because I was ripping parts off the machine in the middle of a trade show. But you know, trust but verify. This should be really nice for us because of the changeovers and how quickly we can tear it down, get the parts cleaned, and put it back together. After playing with it for a couple days during our factory acceptance test (FAT), I think we have a complete winner!
Spee-Dee: What specific model did you invest in?
Brett: We chose the high-speed rotary with 18 heads and integrated checkweigher. For our application, we chose the larger footprint because when you start filling jars on any rotary filler, you have problems with the first few and last few jars. We want everything SQF-compliant—we verify and document everything during big production runs to ensure all jars meet minimum weight plus a gram or two.
We're packing in glass, which is much harder than plastic. Glass can vary plus or minus 5 grams, so you can be way off. That's why we wanted a nice checkweigher that zeros out the glass, gets an average, and lets you run the job at a couple grams over to cover your fills.
Spee-Dee: Tell us about your experience during the Factory Acceptance Test.
Brett: After the team figured out how to run different products and tooling setups—cinnamon, cumin, and others—we said, "What other material do you have?" They had some other seasoning material on hand from other tests they’ve run with spice
customers, and I said "Perfect."
From running eight jars to get the baseline, we took a current cinnamon recipe (which is super fluffy and completely different), copied it over, and saved it as seasoning. I looked at the math quickly and said, "Let's make it half the speed because it's a free-flow product that's very heavy." We ran eight jars—they overfilled as expected. We adjusted down another 15% and ran eight more jars.
The whole process took less than three minutes, and the second eight jars—specifically the four middle ones where you measure—were dead on. We got perfect weights for a new product we'd never seen before in literally less than five minutes. That was utterly amazing compared to sitting there for an hour and a half trying to figure out timing and settings.
Spee-Dee: What are your expectations for throughput and productivity improvements?
Brett: The machine will do over 150 of these little jars per minute, maybe 180. The line it's going on currently does 30 per minute. We bought two new cappers that arrived yesterday, and initially expect to do 50-60 per minute on this current line without reconfiguring conveyors or changing the labeler or case packer.
Why spend all this money to double production? Because we're growing at 30% yearly. It's not what I need today—it's having a machine everyone knows how to use. I have two more Spee-Dee machines on order for seasoning lines with bigger jars, designed from the ground up as high-speed lines.
This line will do 60 per minute, doubling production instantly with minimal changes. Next year I'll budget to upgrade the full line to about 120 per minute, giving us capacity to grow for the next three to four years on short-run products.
Brett: Quick changeovers were my number one selling point. My application isn't running the same product forever. We run allergens, non-allergens, spicy peppers, cinnamon—you don't want spicy pepper in the cinnamon. We have to do full tear-downs and swab tests to ensure the machine is clean.
I don't think there's anything else that can compete with what I've seen from the Spee-Dee high-speed rotary. We've been here two and a half days for the FAT, and the team has literally torn the machine apart and put it back together numerous times. They're making training videos to make everything completely seamless, but it's pretty straightforward.
The change parts use very high-quality quick-release mechanisms—they're all keyed, super sturdy, don't vibrate at all. It's literally twist, pop, lift, set aside, send to wash, bring back, push down, snap, twist—done. They had the whole machine disassembled in maybe 10-15 minutes. No screwdrivers, no wrenches—it just unsnaps and comes apart.
Spee-Dee: How does this equipment support your premium market positioning?
Brett: We're a premium company doing premium spices and seasonings with custom blends. We're all-natural, no fillers, using the best commercial spices available with higher oils. We go after premium clients, which is much smaller than the value market looking for price.
We have to be really competitive and efficient because our cost of goods is generally higher. But this portion of the business is growing faster because people want to cook more at home. When they buy premium-quality seasoning or spice, it tastes better and they use less to get the same effect.
Our customer base has been growing considerably faster than lower-end customer bases. Our biggest challenge isn't sales—it's production capacity while maintaining quality standards.
Spee-Dee: What advice would you give other growing companies about equipment investment?
Brett: Don't buy what you need today—buy where you're going in the next 24 months. Don't end up with nice equipment sitting in the corner because you outgrew it.
I can take on another big clients right now and go from 4 million jars per year to 8 million jars without thinking about it. For another $300-400,000 in conveyors and packaging equipment, I can double that again to 16 million jars.
We always buy best-of-class equipment. When we keep growing, I can call and get parts because it's made in America. Don't buy cheap stuff you'll replace every year. If your business is growing 10-30% per year, buy what's going to be usable for the next three to five years. Think medium to long term—buy the right tools to grow your business.
The Spice Lab's partnership with us demonstrates how investment in the right equipment, like seasoning & spice packaging machines, can transform a growing business. By prioritizing quick changeovers, production efficiency, & scalable technology, Brett & his team have positioned themselves to handle continued growth while maintaining their premium quality standards.
Ready to scale your food production operation with reliable, American-made spice packaging equipment? Contact us to learn how our high-speed rotary filling systems can help your business achieve its goals.