MBO At Widdop

Brothers Stephen and Dan Illingworth have just completed an MBO to acquire the long standing gift company, Widdop and Co outright, following in the footsteps of their forefathers. “It will secure the future of the company for a fifth generation of our family,” stated Stephen Illingworth, the company’s new owner and ceo.

“Dan and I are thrilled to take over after what has been a lifelong dream and journey. Our predecessors have built the most incredible platform for us to build on,” commented Stephen, “and it is an honour and privilege to take the helm in our 140th year for what will be an exciting new chapter of growth and innovation in our industry.”

He continued: “We are very grateful to our father in particular for supporting us on this journey, and we cannot wait to share with the world our vision for the future.”

This news comes hot on the heels of Widdop’s PG Live launch of an extensive collection of gifts and homewares based on a licensing collaboration with Raspberry Blossom , which went down a storm with retailers at the show.

A £100,000 investment has seen greeting card printer Loxleys save over 6.2tonnes of plastic from going into landfill each year by sending the greeting cards it produces for publishers out wrapped in a paper band instead of plastic film. This landfill save is the equivalent to the weight of one African elephant, two Ford trucks or three adult hippos! The print company’s new fullyautomated paper banding line creates an eco-band that’s a sustainable solution to transit packing, collating cards and envelopes in multiples of threes and sixes, replacing the need for traditional OPP plastic film. Loxleys’ md Tony Lorriman commented: “We are committed to minimising the environmental impact of a greeting card - our recent investments in new technology demonstrate this commitment by increasing the sustainability of our production process.”

The innovative new equipment is suitable for cards up to a maximum 9x6” size and has the capacity to gather and band 20million cards and envelopes per year, securing each set with a fullyrecyclable paper band.

Tony said that, as a specialist manufacturer, Loxleys believes it is its responsibility to continuously develop eco-friendly alternative solutions, and the investment in paper banding eliminates the use of plastic within the transit bagging process, offering publishers a more sustainable way to group and ship their cards, significantly reducing landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions. The machine is also capable of being adapted to run other solutions within the eco-range, allowing future development of innovative plastic-free production and packaging for greeting cards. Loxleys has also completed a full transition to LED lighting throughout its premises, reducing on-site energy usage and decreasing carbon output by 9,316 KgCO2e., and an investment in voltage optimisation technology will cut its energy usage by a further 7%. The printer has also replaced the traditional method of chemically processing printing plates to use a sustainable chemical-free plate production method.

Foil has taken a bit of a battering in recent years as a greeting card and wrap finish because of concerns over its sustainability, but new research has shown that Foilco’s products, used by many greeting card publishers, can actually be good for the soil. The recent study by the B Corp-certified manufacturer and supplier of stamping foils proves the foils it produces can be composted - and even improve the germination rate of some seeds.

Rose Happer, Foilco’s brand environment and sustainability officer, explained that composting is the biological degradation process of solid organic materials under controlled conditions to obtain a stable material that can be used as organic fertiliser, helping local authorities and businesses achieve targets to increase recovery rates and divert waste from landfill. “Put simply,” she said, “compostable materials give nutrients back to the earth after they break down - they feed the soil.”

And the testing by Intertek checked out two of Foilco’s most popular stamping foils - a pigment and metallic foil, both printed on to coated 300g board - concluding that they are fully compostable, meeting the EU EN 13432 standard defining how quickly and to what extent a biodegradable material must degrade under industrial composting conditions.

At the end of the test, the Foilco samples had disintegrated by 99.2%, leaving only 0.8% of the test sample, far less than the maximum 10%. After 135 days, 92.61% of the organic carbon in the foil samples had converted to carbon dioxide.

The toxicity test on the compost sample containing the pigment and metallic stamping foils showed no adverse effect on the seedling emergence or growth, and Rose said: “In fact, the root and shoot growth rates of some of the seedlings tested were slightly more than in the control sample.”