IMA Consolidates Teabag Equipment Market

The acquisition of teabag packaging equipment manufacturers Teamac (2015) and Argentina-based Mai S.A.this spring make IMA Group the dominant supplier in the market.

Klaus Peters, general director IMA S.p.A Tea & Herbs Division and president of rebranded IMA MAISA says that when combined with IMA RI “our market share is now 70% mainly based on the development of new machines to react to new requests for packaging in the market.”

The combination of these companies gives IMA a significant foothold in South America and an extensive global presence, he said. Mai S.A., founded in 1976 by Pablo Mai, has 3,500 installations with a service network supporting Africa, Southeast Asian, and Latin America clients.

Peters, who presented the new C27-E at Interpack 17, said the market “is seeking a very clean machine, a simple machine, easy to operate, easy to maintain.” The C27-E meets and exceeds those requirements at a medium range of speed of 300 bags per minute, he said.

IMA’s single-chamber machines are tailored to the needs of customers supplying U.K., South Africa, and Australia. The Middle East and North America prefer double-chamber bags. The newest single-lane machine fills IMA’s patented flow pack bag at a rate of 900 per minute. Some customers reconfigure 1,000 products per year, he explained. IMA was the first to replace hundreds of mechanical parts with electronic controllers, opening a technology gap “that is much bigger than it was three years ago,” he said.

Currently, only 15% of the tea sold is in teabags leaving 85% without packaging. It is a market driven by cost and the price consumers are willing to pay. Premium long leaf tea earns a higher price which is why IMA is developing a pyramid tea bagging machine to be introduced next year, he said.

Customers care a great deal about the environment which is why the machines are designed to package tea in paper, woven, non-woven, and PLA.