A Smarter, Faster Bagger for a Growing Fresh Food Operation

Pearson Foods Corporation, a family-owned fresh-cut produce manufacturer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, needed a VFFS bagger that could keep pace with a growing customer base, stand up to nightly high-pressure washdowns, and be learned by new operators in days instead of weeks. Already running a fleet of Hayssen Ultimas, Pearson Foods worked with BW Packaging to bring in the company’s next-generation Hayssen ISB (Intelligent Sanitary Bagger), and saw the benefits immediately. As a result of this partnership, Pearson Foods was able to:

• Increase bagging speeds by 18-22% compared to its existing Ultima machines
• Train new operators, including employees with zero packaging experience, in just two to three days
• Eliminate machine tarping during nightly washdowns with a fully sanitary, high-pressure washdown-capable design
• Launch new retail packaging formats with hands-on application engineering support from BW Packaging at no additional charge

Reliable Machines, Rising Demands

Pearson Foods has been a West Michigan institution since 1977, when founder David Pearson started growing bean sprouts in a warehouse basement and delivering them to local grocers in a station wagon. Over four decades later, the company operates out of a state-of-the-art 100,000-square-foot facility in Grand Rapids, serving some of the nation’s largest retailers, foodservice operators, and food manufacturing customers with premium fresh-cut fruits, vegetables, deli selections, and meal solutions.

The company’s relationship with the Hayssen brand was well-established before the ISB entered the picture. Pearson Foods had been running Hayssen Ultima VFFS machines in its production facility and had come to trust the platform for its day-in, day-out reliability.

“Our Ultimas run every day; we’ve not had any issues with them,” said John Nelson, Vice President of Operations at Pearson Foods. “Minimal upkeep, they just keep on running.”

But the operation was growing. Pearson Foods was supplying product to thousands of retail store locations through its customer network, and the packaging line needed to keep up. At the same time, Nelson was facing the workforce challenge that defines modern food manufacturing: constant turnover. Operators were young, often coming in with no prior experience in bagging or automation, and the time it took to get them proficient on older equipment was a bottleneck.

And then there was sanitation. Fresh-cut produce demands an uncompromising approach to food safety. Pearson Foods washes down its entire production floor every night, every surface, every piece of equipment. Any machine on that floor needs to withstand high-pressure washdown without tarping, protection, or compromise. The Ultimas had served well, but a purpose-built sanitary bagger would change the equation entirely.

The Solution is More Than a Machine Sale

When BW Packaging introduced the Hayssen ISB, a VFFS bagger designed from the ground up based on customer feedback from the fresh produce, frozen food, and cheese industries, Pearson Foods already knew the brand and trusted the team behind it. But what turned the decision into a partnership was everything that happened around the machine itself.

Nelson and his team saw the benefits of the ISB immediately. The machine was servo-driven, faster, and cleaner in design than anything they had been running. But the real test of a partnership isn’t what happens on day one, it’s what happens when the customer needs to grow.

A major customer on the East Coast needed Pearson Foods to develop a 12-ounce retail packaging format, a new configuration that required careful calibration of bag dimensions, fill weights, and machine settings. BW Packaging’s application engineers, Jeff and Brandon, worked directly with the Pearson Foods team to launch the new format. Nelson described it as a significant commercial success, and one that wouldn’t have come together as quickly or smoothly without hands-on engineering support.

“One of the great things, I think, about the application engineering role is they’re able to support our customers, like Pearson, in their process of growing,” Hembree said.

That’s the part competitors can’t easily replicate. Application engineering support isn’t a line item on a purchase order. It’s an ongoing resource that helps a company like Pearson Foods respond to new customer requirements and enter new channels, with the confidence that the equipment and the people behind it can handle whatever comes next.

Tech Support That Shows Up

When production lines are running fresh-cut produce, a product where shelf life is measured in days, every hour of unplanned downtime has a direct impact on product quality and customer commitments. Nelson has been consistently impressed by the responsiveness of BW Packaging’s tech support team, particularly when urgency is involved.

“Tech support has been outstanding,” Nelson said. “I’ve had a couple of conditions where I needed something right away; they were able to expedite. They actually took some parts out of an existing machine to help get us up and running.”

Pulling parts out of another build to keep a customer running isn’t a line you’ll find in a standard service agreement. It’s the kind of decision that happens when the people behind the equipment genuinely understand what’s at stake on a production floor.

Smart, Sanitary, and Built for the People Who Run It

The Hayssen ISB delivered results that were visible from day one, and the gains have only compounded as Pearson Foods has integrated the machine into its daily operation.

18–22% Faster, Right Out of the Gate

Nelson’s team measured the improvement precisely: the ISB runs 18% to 22% faster than the Ultima machines it supplements. For a company supporting thousands of retail locations through its customer network, that kind of throughput gain translates directly into the ability to meet growing demand without adding shifts or lines.

“We can run an ISB bagger between 18% and 22% faster than we can the other two machines,” Nelson said. “That’s one of the things I personally like about it the most, that it’s servo-driven. It’s smart. I like smart.”

Sanitary by Design, Not by Workaround

The ISB’s name, Intelligent Sanitary Bagger, isn’t marketing language. It’s a design specification. The machine was built with an open-channel frame where all surfaces are sloped and surface-to-surface contact between components is limited to no more than one square inch. It carries IP66 and NEMA 4X ratings, meaning the entire machine, including the touchscreen HMI, is certified for high-pressure washdown.

For Pearson Foods, that eliminated a nightly pain point. Where the team previously had to tarp equipment before washdown, the ISB can simply be washed, rinsed, blown off, reloaded with film, and put back into production. No flat surfaces for contaminants to build up on. No workarounds. Just wash it and go.

Two to Three Days from Zero to Confident

In an industry defined by workforce turnover, training time is one of the most underappreciated cost drivers in a packaging operation. The ISB was designed to collapse that timeline dramatically. Nelson pointed to one of his operators as proof: a young employee who came to Pearson Foods straight out of high school with no experience in bagging or automation whatsoever.

“The machine is intuitive,” Nelson said. “We can train our folks within two to three days.”

The ISB’s HMI puts every critical function on the home screen, no menu-diving, no tribal knowledge required. A built-in language toggle switches all on-screen text to Spanish with a single button press, a practical feature for the diverse workforce in many food manufacturing environments. Clear guards provide full visibility into the machine’s operation, and tool-less changeovers (except for the sealing jaws) mean operators spend less time adjusting and more time producing.

A Visual Pulse on the Production Floor

One feature that has become a daily favorite for Nelson is the ISB’s four-color status lighting system. Green means the machine is running in automatic. Red indicates it’s stopped. Blue signals that the bagger is waiting on material. Yellow provides an additional alert. With the ISB’s clear guards, the lights are visible from anywhere on the production floor.

“The light option has been awesome,” Nelson said. “It’s a great visual. I can tell from anywhere in the shop where that ISB bagger is operationally.”

For a production environment where supervisors are managing multiple lines simultaneously, that kind of at-a-glance communication reduces response time to stoppages and helps identify material feed issues before they cascade into extended downtime.

Worth Every Dollar

Nelson is candid about the competitive landscape. There are several VFFS bagging systems on the market, and the Hayssen ISB is not the cheapest option. But for Pearson Foods, the total picture, speed, sanitation, ease of use, application engineering support, and responsive tech support, adds up to a partnership that delivers value well beyond the purchase price.

“There are probably three or four other bagging systems that are out there,” Nelson said. “The Hayssen bagger is definitely not the cheapest. But our Ultimas run every day; we’ve not had any issues with them. Minimal upkeep, they just keep on running. And now with this ISB, it’s just an improvement on what we already have.”

For Pearson Foods, the Hayssen ISB isn’t just a faster bagger. It’s the piece of equipment that lets a growing company meet new customer demands, onboard new operators in days instead of weeks, and wash down every night without compromise. It’s the next chapter in a relationship built on machines that run, and people who answer the phone when they don’t.