FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
North Bay Manufacturer Continues Expansion into Global Markets with Addition of New CEO
Santa Rosa, CA — November 26th, 2012 — Loring Smart Roasters, a rapidly growing coffee equipment manufacturer, continues to expand into Asia, South America, and Europe with the addition of a new Chief Executive Officer. Robert W. (Bob) Austin joins founder Mark Ludwig, and the existing leadership team with the goal of expanding global sales, enhancing the production pipeline, and preparing the company wide infrastructure for continued growth.
Passion for Transitioning Companies from Founder-Lead to Industry Leaders
Bob has a very successful track record, and a passion for helping technology focused companies make the critical transition from founder and inventor-lead start ups to industry leading companies. After decades of experience leading development teams at Hewlett Packard and Microsource, Bob joined the team at ESA (Eason) Technology as CEO. Over his ten-year career at Eason, he was able to help the company increase revenues over 75%, reduce costs 27%, develop new product lines, and negotiate the company’s successful acquisition by ESA Technology of Italy.
Founded on Innovation
Loring Smart Roasters has been designing and manufacturing cutting edge coffee bean roasting equipment for coffee roasters and roastmasters since 2008. Inventor Mark Loring Ludwig set out to create the world’s most energy efficient and innovative roaster, and succeeded. Loring’s patented Flavor Lock roasting process reduces energy consumption and costs over 80% while their digital control and monitoring systems allow for the perfect roast time and time again.
Continued Momentum
These innovations have allowed the Loring team to successfully enter into a crowded market dominated by legacy technology. Since its founding, the company has seen expansive growth each year, and recently significant gains internationally. The addition of Bob will allow the entire leadership team to maximize this momentum and continue their global expansion.
Hitting the Ground Running
Since joining the team in August, Bob and the team have been able to finalize the launch of Loring’s new full bag roaster, the Peregrine. With its 70 Kilogram capacity, this new larger roaster brings Loring’s innovative Flavor Lock process to larger roasteries worldwide. Powered by the new launch and international sales, the new leadership team forecasts ending the 2012 year with record sales, and looks forward to continued growth into 2013 and beyond.
About Loring Smart Roasters
California based Loring Smart Roasters is pioneering in the coffee industry with the introduction of innovative commercial coffee roasting machinery that utilizes their patented Flavor-Lock Roast Process and a sophisticated parametric profiling system that gives roastmasters the unmatched ability to extract the flavor they want in every bean they roast.
Roastmasters using Loring products can now consistently create great tasting coffee. Loring combined this advancement with dramatic fuel savings as a result of eliminating the need for an afterburner found on conventional roasting machines. This allow for an incredibly efficient roasting process as Loring roasters greatly reduce fuel consumption, CO2 emissions, and operating cost by up to 80% and allowing Loring to redefine coffee roasting worldwide.
About Loring’s Leadership
Robert (Bob) Austin, President and CEO
A graduate from Seattle and Stanford Universities with both his B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E, Bob has spent his career leading and developing technology teams to create revolutionary products and establish strong businesses around them. Bob career includes Hewlett Packard, Microsource, ESA (Eason) Technology, EIP Microwave, (Anritsu) Wiltron Company, Symphony Media Systems, DE-STA-CO (A Dover Company, and more. He currently resides in Healdsburg, California with his wife.
Mark Loring Ludwig, Founder
Mark Ludwig drew upon more than 30 years experience making complicated food processing equipment and his personal frustration with early versions of air roasters to design and develop a coffee roaster that would overcome the inefficacies of wasting massive amounts of energy to eliminate smoke. He wanted to build a coffee roaster that was clean, green, and had the kind of controls that advanced roastmasters must have to enable consistent high-quality production. His innovations demonstrate his concern for sustainability and his commitment to producing great coffee for people around the world.
Ron Kleist, Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Ron Kleist has a 40-year career working with companies that successfully brought several groundbreaking technologies to market in fields as diverse as packaging, communications, high-tech manufacturing, biotech and ergonomics. Since joining Loring, he has helped rebrand the company, establish international sales, and contribute to the improvement of the company’s products. Loring is now the fastest growing manufacturer in the world of precision coffee roasting equipment.
Scott Robinson, Vice President, Manufacturing and Customer Service
Scott has more than 30 years experience building some of the finest pieces of equipment in the world for food processing and transportation industries. Under his leadership, Loring has been able to consistently improve its quality and reduce its costs, enabling the company to deliver high performance products at attractive prices to a global market.
Contact
To learn more about Loring, its team, or its continued growth please contact:
Chris Denny
640 5th Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
707.546.5448
Chris@TheEngineIsRed.com