Industry News Zeus launches £200,000
Packaging Experience Centre Zeus, the global packaging solutions company, has officially opened its Packaging Experience Centre, following an investment of £200,000 (€239,847). This 1000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility, located at its Head Office in Biggleswade, is the next step in Zeus’s strategic growth plans, following the company’s recent acquisitions in the UK and Ireland. Speaking at the official opening, Zeus chief executive Keith Ockenden said: “The opening of this facility marks an exciting new phase for Zeus as a group. Now more than ever, companies need partners that understand their business and deliver solutions that will reduce inefficiencies and save them time and money. Bringing together our packaging technologists and marketing, sales and design teams, our Packaging Experience Centre is a creative space where our customers can discover the latest innovations in the packaging sector and receive impartial advice on best practice, new and improved materials, and the latest sustainable options. “Utilising a continuous improvement approach and carrying out an end- to-end review of packing needs and existing business processes, we partner with our customers to rethink and optimise their approach to packaging, reducing waste and improving the end-user’s overall brand experience.” As well as a packaging audit driven by six sigma and lean management, key services offered at the Packaging Experience Centre include on-the-spot CAD designs, creation of tailor-made samples and the delivery of training by in-house experts.
Customers of Zeus range across sectors and include Harrods, Musgrave and McDonalds. Established by Brian O’Sullivan in 1998, Zeus has an annualised turnover of €370 million and employs over 650 people worldwide. Mr O’Sullivan was recently announced as the winner of EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2021.
Xwww.zeuspackaging.com
Afri-Plastics Challenge names 30 creative projects
in the running for £1.8m Innovation foundation Nesta Challenges has announced the semi- finalists of Promoting Change, the third and final strand of the £8.3m Afri-Plastics Challenge. The Afri-Plastics Challenge aims to reduce marine plastics in Sub-Saharan African countries by developing and scaling innovative solutions to plastic mismanagement. Each semi- finalist will be supported with £5,000 of funding and in-kind capacity building support to develop their ideas ahead of finalist selection in June. While strands one and two of the challenge prize are scaling technological and engineering solutions to the problems of plastic pollution across sub-Saharan Africa, the final strand is focused on creative communication campaigns to ensure communities are engaged and enthusiastic about changing their long-term behaviour with regard to the way they interact with plastic waste and the circular economy.
Semi-finalists include Virtual Reality storytelling of the plastics lifecycle, blockchain based apps for manufacturers to follow the journey of reusable plastics and the creation of co-operatives to promote plastic alternatives in the fashion and garment industry. Other semi-finalist programmes include women-led campaigns to convince communities to ditch plastic and school education campaigns to encourage children to separate plastic waste from other rubbish.
The 30 selected semi-finalists come from Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Fifteen finalists will then be selected in June 2022, receiving £50,000 each and capacity-building support. Three winners will be chosen in March 2023, receiving £250,000 each.
Xafri-plastics.challenges.org
Hodgson Sealants Group acquires Britchem
Hodgson Sealants Group, the parent company of Hodgson Sealants based in Beverley, East Yorkshire, has acquired the entire share capital of independent private label sealant manufacturer Britchem from the previous owners Roy Barton and Trevor Jones.
Britchem, located in Heckmondwike in West Yorkshire, was founded in 2002. The company is an independent private label manufacturer of sealants for both UK and export customers. Hodgson Sealants was founded in 1968 and, together with its sister company HS Butyl based in Hampshire, is the leading independent sealant and butyl tape manufacturer in the UK employing some 200+ people. The technologies manufactured at both companies are complementary and this
acquisition allows the newly extended Group to offer customers an unrivalled range of UK manufactured sealant and tape technologies, as well as increased capacity to meet the demands of the group’s growing sales. Britchem will continue to be run as an independent company within the Hodgson Sealants Group.
Charles Hodgson of Hodgson Sealants Group said: “We share many values with [Britchem] including a strong customer and quality focus, a flexible manufacturing approach, and a trust and belief in our people. We are determined to build on the success already enjoyed by Britchem.”
Xwww.britchem.co.uk
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May 2022
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