Abstract: A pre-formed cone filling apparatus (100) is disclosed for filling paper cones (130) with a ground product such as tobacco or another leaf- or plant-based product such as cannabis The apparatus 100 has individual cone holders (110) mounted vertically on the circumference of a horizontally-oriented rotating wheel (120). The cone holders move in pairs between a number of processing stations which are located around the circumference of the wheel (120). The processing stations include a loading station (200) for loading an individual cone (130) into each cone holder (110), a seating station (300) to ensure the cones (130) are correctly seated in the holders (110) and correctly shaped, a filling station (500) for filling a cone with the product, and a closing station (600) for closing the open end of the filled cone. The filling station also has primary and secondary tamping pins for controlling the product density during and after filling.