Two Scunthorpe businesses working in the packaging sector have partnered to successfully commercialise previously unwanted material. CorrBoard manufactures corrugated board & now sells its waste board as a raw material to Omni-Pac Group who manufacture poultry, food, medical & tailored moulded fibre packaging products, forming a strategic sustainable partnership.

PRINCIPLES ADOPTED :

BUSINESS MODEL EXAMPLE:

2. RETHINK ownership, use, and the end-of life of products √

3. REDUCE the use of resources in production and consumption √

7. REMANUFACTURE new products with discarded products or parts √

8. REPURPOSE products for other uses √

9. RECYCLE materials into new products or materials √
  1. RESOURCE RECOVERY - recover useful resources out of materials, by-products, or waste

 

 

Two Scunthorpe based businesses working in the packaging sector that challenged the concept of ‘waste’ are encouraging others to consider how they could commercialise previously unwanted products.

When Omni-Pac Group, the manufacturer of poultry, food, medical and tailored moulded fibre packaging applications, approached CorrBoard, the sheet-feeding specialist, to purchase its ‘waste’ corrugated board as a raw material, the businesses established a strategic partnership.

Not only would this collaboration make commercial sense, it would also support CorrBoard’s focus on sustainability.

Fast-forward to 2023 and Omni-Pac has expanded to become a £20m turnover business in the UK and part of a group that employs more than 600 people worldwide, showing in practice what thinking more innovatively about unwanted materials can achieve.

Despite relying exclusively on the partnership for its raw material, having reported double-digit growth since its launch and thanks to a £10m investment in the last five years, Omni-Pac is working with CorrBoard to extend its supplier network.

Once again, the collaboration has proven invaluable as CorrBoard has enlisted the support of affiliated companies to meet with the quantities required for Omni-Pac to produce 500m pieces or 10,000 tonnes of product from its UK facilities each year.

Managing Director of CorrBoard, Rob Burgin, comments: “The partnership we have with Omni-Pac is a great example of how thinking differently and changing the narrative can deliver real success. As well as supporting the growth of a local business, we are also creating skilled jobs in the manufacturing sector.

“As we all work towards becoming more sustainable and measuring the impact that we have on the environment, it’s about more than carbon offsetting. We must change the way we think and be more inventive with the way we manage traditional processes including the disposal of unwanted materials.”

Managing Director of Omni-Pac, James Gallacher, comments: “The relationship we have with CorrBoard has been a key driver to our success. Thanks to the partnership we have in place, together we can champion an innovative approach that can be used as an example of repurposing unwanted materials and how this can work in practice.

“When we first started, we had no idea that the company would scale so quickly. In addition to producing innovative poultry, food, medical and tailored packaging products, we wanted to make it clear that we were taking sustainability seriously.  

“The approach has certainly appealed to our customers and has given us a real point of difference in the market. What we want to do now is to encourage others to do the same and to access the benefits from using the unwanted materials from partners.”

The businesses are now working on a strategic campaign to encourage more organisations to change the way that they think and reference ‘waste’ in order to become more sustainable.

 

CorrBoard is a privately-owned, independent sheet feeder. The business was founded in 2014 and manufactures corrugated cardboard from a purpose-built facility in Scunthorpe. For more information about the business, please visit: www.corrboarduk.com and for regular updates, please follow: @CorrBoardUK on Twitter and @CorrBoard UK on LinkedIn.