Hi, my name is Andrew and I’ve been the Warehouse & Site Manager here at the South Devon Chilli Farm since August last year. Although it’s been a steep learning curve, I’ve still had plenty of time to get acquainted with the Duchess.
‘The Duchess?', I hear you ask... Well, the Duchess is a vital member of our warehouse team and is so-called because of her occasionally temperamental nature! You do have to keep on the right side of her, but if you give her lots of TLC, she can usually be persuaded to co-operate.
The Duchess is our bottle labelling machine and when she’s purring along contentedly, the centre of attention, she can process upwards of 1,000 bottles per day. Originally intended for labelling wine bottles, she came to work for us about 15 years ago to help us out as the business expanded. She needs to be manually adjusted to accommodate the different shapes and sizes of the bottles and jars that we use, from the slim, elegant 50ml bottles that contain our wickedly potent Reaper Sauce, all the way up to the large 670g jars that play host to our ever-popular Chilli Jam.
Now, with escalating online orders and a steady stream of year-round visitors to our Farm Shop, we really couldn’t do without her. The days are long gone when we used to line the bottles up on a box lid to be labelled and date-stamped by hand by whoever had time to spare!
Recently, the warehouse has been off-limits to allow for the construction of a much-needed mezzanine floor for extra storage. The Duchess had started to complain about the workload lately so this gave us the perfect opportunity to book her in for a well-deserved spa day to sooth her nerves - aka a full service with the only company in Devon qualified to tinker with such specialised machinery!
Since then, she has been happily back in harness running off labels for the new-style jars for our award-winning Mint Chilli Drinking Chocolate (Taste of the West Gold for 2024) without a glitch. So, next time you open a jar for a cuppa on a cold evening, please offer up a few kind words for the Duchess; I’m not superstitious but, you never know, it might just help to keep her sweet!