Transcend sees the importance of environmental leadership – so much so that it has just initiated a £10 million eco packaging investment.
Transcend Packaging is a relatively young company, but its environmental ideas and ethics are mature. The company was established in 2017 to provide sustainable packaging solutions to customers in the food service, food and beverage and health and beauty industries. It has a manufacturing facility in South Wales that began production in 2018 and was the first major producer of paper straws in the UK.
Now, just three years after launch, the company has completed a combined equity and debt investment round of £10 million. The cornerstone of the equity round was based on an investment from London based mIW Capital, a private equity firm focused on high growth, small and medium sized enterprises.
This investment will allow Transcend to further its mission to rid the world of single use plastics. Over the past two years, the company has established itself as one of Europe’s leading producers of paper straws, and recently launched the first of its kind, home compostable, CE certified PPE. Transcend, which counts McDonald’s as a client, is focused upon creating fully compostable, paper and fibre based alternatives to plastic packaging using digital printing techniques and speciality paper coatings. This allows it to create products with the same performance as plastics without compromising sustainability.
INSPIRING AND INSPIRED Transcend Packaging began production after its founders were inspired by David Attenborough’s Blue Planet. Gabriel Fysh, Transcend Packaging co-founder and director said: ‘We are delighted to be backed by IW Capital as we focus our efforts on becoming a global leader in sustainable pack- aging. With the current focus on sustainable packaging, shifting away from plastic and the importance of domestic supply chains in a post Covid/Brexit world, Transcend is well positioned to take advantage of this well timed investment from IW Capital, existing shareholders and our strategic partners.'
Luke Davis, CEO of IW Capital, commented: ‘We are thrilled to have led such a significant round of investment in Transcend as it provides the disruption the packaging industry was calling out for. Whether it is for food service business, groceries or the PPE market, Transcend is excellently placed to help organisations replace the plastics that customers don’t want to buy, and governments are making illegal.’
CHANGING THE LANDSCAPE Most recently, the company has demonstrated agility through- out the Covid-19 crisis. After lockdown saw demand from the food service industry dry up overnight, it moved quickly to create affordable, certified protective face masks, securing contracts to supply millions of visors to the NHS Wales, elderly care centres, schools and private industry. Conscious of the environmental impact of single use PPE, Transcend was the first company to produce a fully home compostable face visor with a Plastic Free trust mark from A Plastic Planet.
Gabriel concluded, ‘Our resourcefulness and creativity in a crisis allowed us to pivot and create a world’s first plastic free PPE product in record time. This is further proof that we can use natural materials to replace plastics in more ways than people assume. All organisations are under pressure to come back greener and cleaner and every example of this presents an opportunity – whether that is paper coffee cup lids, take away trays, cutlery or even drinks bottles. There is no longer any excuse to continue to use petroleum plastic to pollute our planet.’
‘The Covid-19 crisis and the slow down in global trade has also highlighted the need for UK and EU companies to end their reliance on imported packaging from China and to seek safe, certified products produced here in the UK.’
The company now plans to recruit more talent and develop additional products to help its high street clients on the path to a more sustainable world.
Transcend Packaging creates fully compostable, paper and fibre based alternatives to plastic packaging for the world’s biggest brands, using the latest digital printing techniques and speciality paper coatings. The company has also launched its latest innovation, a groundbreaking biodegradable PPE face visor made from paper pulp and cellulose, which has been certified for use against Covid-19 and is already being used across NHS England and Wales.
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Transcend Packaging - https://transcendpackaging.com
I W Capital - https://iwcapital.co.uk
A Plastic Planet - https://aplasticplanet.com