Many butchers, delis or food processing businesses have encountered inconsistent patties, product wastage and slow production. Due to this, you may have considered investing in an automatic burger forming machine.
Taking pride in your products and presentation is vital to many food processors, so it’s normal to be wary of automatic machines taking over your craftsmanship. But an automatic machine does not mean a factory-made presentation or quality. It means more efficient production, allowing you to focus on the quality of your other products.
The right machine can help local businesses compete with the production and price of large-scale supermarkets and processing, whilst maintaining your crafted quality.
Profit Margins
Automatic burger forming machines often come with a heavy price tag, with our collection beginning at £4,500 and spanning up to £11,000. But if this is feeling out of budget, it’s important to evaluate the return on investment and what this machine will give back to your business.
- Labour efficiency: An automatic machine allows your team to tend to customers or other responsibilities without interrupting production. You can double your production without doubling your monthly payroll costs.
- Reducing wastage: These machines guarantee perfect portion control, which will make a huge difference to your monthly profits.
- Utilising offcuts: Forming machines make it easy to utilise trim and offcuts into identical patties that match the quality of the main meat, allowing you to increase your product yield and reduce wastage.
- Meat quality: A low-pressure forming machine, such as the Omega Smart, can also improve the quality of meat. It preserves the meat fibres through the forming process to keep the burger juicy and tender. This effect is not always guaranteed with man-made patties.
Time efficiency
Not only will these machines reduce your labour costs, but you will see a significant increase in your production rates. Some of our high-end models can produce up to 8,000 patties per hour. If you’re a high-volume, high-demand processing business, or if you’re receiving increased orders, then a burger machine may be the best solution.
Photo by Anna Barabanova via Unsplash
Seasonal surges around summer and bank holiday weekends can make a big difference to your production needs. Demand for your products may triple from day to day, but with a burger machine, you can increase your production rates as and when you need to.
When employees are overworked or rushing, it’s only natural for some slip-ups in quality to occur. However, an automated machine will continue making the same quality products no matter how many hours it’s working.
Presentation
For local butchers and deli counters, presentation means a lot. Customers eat (and shop) with their eyes. In order to increase your sales and match large-scale retail standards, you must match their presentation.
A burger forming machine guarantees uniform patties, which will instantly give your business a premium presentation. This means higher sales and a better reputation, which could allow you to progress to higher-end pricing.
This uniform diameter and thickness across the burgers will also make a difference to the cooking consistency. This will build trust in your brand and increase your returning customers.
Investing For Your Products
Investing in a burger machine is a great way to grow your business. It allows you to focus on having high-quality products while the machine handles the labour. It is not about replacing butchers and their craftsmanship, but improving the quality of your products and your reputation.
The return on investment on these machines can very quickly repay themselves. For example, handcrafting 500 burgers usually takes around 5 hours (forming 100 patties per hour by hand). However, a machine such as the Minerva Omega Smart (that can produce 1000 patties per hour) will be able to finish the job within just 15 minutes. This will save you 4.75 hours of labour.
Taking the average butcher's UK hourly wage of £15.24, you will be easily saving £72.39 per day just on forming 500 patties. Even a medium-volume business such as this example should completely recover the machine cost in 2-5 months, depending on the machine's price.
If you are looking for a burger forming machine that you can depend upon, browse our brand new Omega Smart machine. It offers premium quality and production while being the most affordable machine in our collection, making it the perfect first-time investment. We have a full product specification available if you’re looking for a reliable entry-level machine.
If you are unsure of whether a burger forming machine is the right option for your business, get in touch with our team. They can provide advice and support to ensure you’re making the right investments.
