A Controls Upgrade Breathes New Life into a Proven VFFS Workhorse

Crest Foods Co., Inc., a family-owned dry food manufacturer based in Ashton, Illinois, needed to modernize the controls on its aging Hayssen Ultima vertical form-fill-seal (VFFS) baggers without the cost and disruption of a full equipment replacement. To keep its packaging lines running at peak efficiency, Crest Foods turned to BW Packaging for a comprehensive controls upgrade. Working closely with BW Packaging’s sales and engineering teams, Crest Foods upgraded its Hayssen Ultima machines with modern Allen-Bradley servo-driven controls and color touchscreen interfaces, extending the productive life of trusted equipment and gaining new capabilities in the process. As a result of this partnership, Crest Foods was able to:

• Modernize its VFFS bagging operations with upgraded Allen-Bradley servo controls and touchscreen interfaces
• Improve packaging speed, seal quality, and changeover efficiency across multiple product lines
• Maximize the return on its existing equipment investment with a cost-effective upgrade path supported by long-term OEM partnership

A Legacy of Quality in Dry Food Manufacturing

Crest Foods Co., Inc. has been a fixture of the American food industry since 1946. Headquartered in Ashton, Illinois, about 90 miles west of Chicago, this third-generation, family-owned company has grown from humble beginnings into a nationally recognized dry food manufacturer with approximately 650 full-time employees and state-of-the-art facilities.

The company operates across three divisions: an Ingredient Division that develops proprietary stabilizer formulations for dairy products like cottage cheese, cream cheese, yogurt, and plant-based beverages; a Consumer Products Division that provides outsourced product development and turn-key manufacturing for branded food companies; and a Contract Packaging Division that serves both branded and private-label dry food customers. Its product portfolio includes desserts, dips, snack seasonings, and a range of other dry food products.

With its tagline, “It’s not the business that we do. It’s the way that we do business,” Crest Foods has built its reputation on a culture-driven approach that puts employees and partners first, a philosophy that naturally aligned with the people-centric values of BW Packaging and its parent company, Barry-Wehmiller.

The Challenge: Outdated Controls on Proven Equipment

For years, Crest Foods had relied on its fleet of Hayssen Ultima VFFS baggers to package a wide range of dry food products. The Ultima’s robust mechanical design, built around a heavy-duty jaw assembly with shock and noise abatement, had proven its durability over countless production cycles. The machines themselves were far from worn out.

The controls, however, were a different story. The original proprietary control systems had become increasingly difficult to support. Replacement parts were harder to source, troubleshooting required specialized knowledge that was difficult to transfer to new maintenance staff, and the machines lacked the flexibility and recipe management features that modern production environments demand.

Rick Rice, Controls Engineer and Project Manager at Crest Foods, recognized the situation many food manufacturers face: the mechanical bones of the equipment were sound, but the controls were holding the operation back. Purchasing entirely new VFFS machines would represent a significant capital expenditure, not to mention the downtime and training required to integrate unfamiliar equipment into a production environment that runs multiple product lines.

What Crest Foods needed was a partner who understood the Hayssen Ultima platform inside and out, someone who could upgrade the controls while preserving the proven mechanical reliability that had earned the machines their place on the production floor.

The Right Partner for the Job

When it came time to evaluate upgrade options, Crest Foods turned to BW Packaging, the original equipment manufacturer behind the Hayssen brand. Phil Williams, a Sales Executive at BW Hayssen with decades of VFFS experience, worked directly with the Crest Foods team to assess their needs and develop an upgrade plan that would meet the demands of their multi-product operation.

Going directly to the OEM offered several advantages that third-party upgrade providers couldn’t match. BW Packaging’s engineers had designed the Hayssen Ultima from the ground up, which meant they understood every integration point between the mechanical systems and the new controls package. This deep platform knowledge translated into a smoother upgrade process, better performance calibration, and genuine OEM support after the project was complete.

Modernized Controls, Proven Performance

The upgrade centered on replacing the Hayssen Ultima’s original proprietary controls with a modern, servo-driven Allen-Bradley system featuring a color touchscreen operator interface. The new controls package brought the machines into the modern era while preserving the rugged mechanical platform that had served Crest Foods reliably for years.

Key elements of the upgrade included:

• Allen-Bradley PLC and servo drive system: Replacing the legacy proprietary controls with industry-standard Allen-Bradley programmable logic controllers and servo motors for precise, responsive film handling and jaw timing.
• Color touchscreen operator interface: A modern HMI providing intuitive access to machine setup, speed adjustments, temperature controls, bag dimensions, and diagnostics, all from a single screen.
• Recipe management: The ability to save and recall complete machine setup parameters for each product SKU, dramatically reducing changeover time when switching between the many dry food products Crest Foods packages.
• Non-proprietary, field-serviceable components: Off-the-shelf Allen-Bradley components that Crest Foods’ maintenance team can source and replace locally, reducing dependence on specialized OEM-only parts.

For a company like Crest Foods, packaging everything from snack seasonings to dessert mixes across dozens of SKUs, the recipe management capability alone represented a significant productivity gain. Rather than manually reconfiguring the machine for each product changeover, operators could now load a saved recipe and be back up and running in a fraction of the time.

A Collaborative Approach Built on Trust

What made the project stand out wasn’t just the technical scope of the upgrade, it was the way BW Packaging and Crest Foods worked together throughout the process. From the initial assessment through installation, commissioning, and ongoing support, the relationship reflected a shared commitment to getting it right.

Phil Williams and the BW Packaging team took the time to understand Crest Foods’ specific production environment: the diversity of products they run, the changeover frequency their operation demands, and the skill level of the operators and maintenance personnel who would interact with the upgraded machines daily. This wasn’t a one-size-fits-all controls swap, it was an upgrade tailored to Crest Foods’ real-world operating conditions.

That collaborative philosophy extends beyond the project itself. As part of the Barry-Wehmiller family of companies, BW Packaging operates under a people-first culture that emphasizes long-term partnerships over transactional sales. For Crest Foods, a company that has built three generations of success on a similar values-driven approach, the cultural alignment was as important as the technical fit.

Extending the Life of a Proven Platform

With the controls upgrade complete, Crest Foods’ Hayssen Ultima VFFS baggers are operating with a level of precision and flexibility that matches, and in some cases exceeds, what a brand-new machine could deliver, at a fraction of the cost. The upgraded machines are now running production across Crest Foods’ diverse product portfolio, with the modern controls handling the nuances of different product weights, bag sizes, and film specifications with ease.

The benefits have been tangible and wide-reaching across the Crest Foods operation:

• Faster changeovers: Recipe storage and recall eliminates the manual reconfiguration that previously slowed down transitions between product lines.
• Improved seal quality: Precise servo-driven jaw control and independent temperature management deliver more consistent seals, reducing waste and product rejects.
• Easier troubleshooting and maintenance: Industry-standard Allen-Bradley components are readily available and well-understood by Crest Foods’ maintenance team, reducing downtime and service costs.
• Significant capital savings: By upgrading rather than replacing, Crest Foods preserved its investment in proven mechanical equipment while gaining the functionality of a modern VFFS system.
• Ongoing OEM support: With BW Packaging as their upgrade partner, Crest Foods has direct access to the original equipment manufacturer for parts, service, and future enhancements, a level of support that third-party providers simply cannot match.

A Partnership Built to Last

The Crest Foods controls upgrade project is a powerful example of how BW Packaging’s aftermarket services deliver real value to customers with an existing Hayssen installed base. Rather than treating the sale of a new machine as the only path forward, BW Packaging met Crest Foods where they were, helping them maximize the return on equipment they already owned and trusted.

For food manufacturers evaluating their own aging VFFS equipment, the Crest Foods story demonstrates that a controls upgrade can be the smartest investment on the table. When that upgrade comes from the original equipment manufacturer, with full engineering support and a commitment to the customer’s long-term success, the results speak for themselves.