Automation turbo charges growth for bubble tea company

Connected through Made Smarter, a national scheme introducing UK manufacturers to digital tools, leadership and the skills needed to drive sustainable growth, Bubble Panda and the Northern Engineering and Robotics Innovation Centre (NERIC) partnership has exceeded growth expectations.

Manchester based Bubble Panda sells thousands of bubble tea flavour combinations direct-to-consumer. Through a technology grant, leadership training and new partnerships, the company has automated key processes, increased productivity, and positioned itself for long-term, sustainable expansion.

Initially, rapid growth and a highly customisable product created increasing operational pressures – as a result, a semi-automated inline filling and sealing machine could not keep up with demand and operators had to manually feed tubs and carry out frequent tooling changes between different sizes. This limited throughput, reduced consistency, and restricted staff to repetitive yet physically demanding tasks.

Made Smarter introduced The Bubble Panda to NERIC who identified immediate and future-focused improvements and automation solutions, first delivering rapid value by restoring a non-operational taping machine and the company tripled its output capacity and was able to meet rising demand while preparing to supply new customers around the world. 

The core project was the design and testing of a custom dual-robot automation cell, demonstrating high-speed, reliable pick-and-place of Bubble Panda’s tubs at a four-second cycle time, with scope to go faster – the cell integrated vision systems for quality control, accuracy and repeatability under real operating conditions.

NERIC also completed a feasibility study into automating other production areas, including robotic pick-and-place and machine vision for label and seal inspection. Together, these developments give Bubble Panda a validated, scalable platform for growth, preparing operations for higher volumes and reducing manual reliance.

Scott Harasyn, founder of Bubble Panda, said: “Made Smarter’s partnership approach with other organisations has been incredibly helpful. Working with NERIC has proved to be a real eye-opener, demonstrating what was possible for Bubble Panda now and in the future, and giving me significant confidence around investment, risk, and the wider potential of automation.”

Tabs Khojani, Business Development Manager at NERIC, said: “It’s been a pleasure to work with Bubble Panda at such an exciting stage of their growth journey. Through our collaboration with Made Smarter, we were able to quickly unlock value by restoring existing equipment, before designing and validating a scalable robotic solution that gives the business confidence to invest and grow. This project demonstrates how NERIC can de-risk automation for ambitious manufacturers and help translate innovation into measurable productivity gains.”

To find out how NERIC can support your business or industry partners, please contact the team at neric@salford.ac.uk.