SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND DRINKS PACKAGING BUSINESS TARGETS £4M TURNOVER

An award-winning business in Coventry is targeting £4 million in turnover.

Purple Planet Packaging supplies sustainable food and drinks packaging to various sectors including schools, the hospitality trade, and directly to consumers.

The company, based at the Seven Stars Industrial Estate in Coventry, works with manufacturers and suppliers to “close the loop” as the vast majority of the 450 products it supplies are biodegradable material that can be composted.

The firm was bought by husband-and-wife team Mark and Joanna Farr in 2019 as a lifestyle business but the Covid lockdowns

– and the sudden demand for takeaway packaging – saw an immediate and unexpected boom.

They are now working with Steve Tipson from the Business Ready programme as they look to reach £4 million turnover by 2024.

Business Ready delivers support to expanding companies managed by the business support team at the University of Warwick Science Park.

“Working with Business Ready is helping to put things in place such as policies and procedures that we just didn’t have the awareness of before,” said Mark.

“You don’t know what you don’t know.”

Steve said: “Mark and Joanna are developing an amazing business and it is not unusual to see a start-up grow very quickly without having everything in place in the background. Business Ready is there to help businesses when they hit some of those roadblocks to growth and help them to get processes in place to overcome them.”

Cllr Martin Watson, portfolio holder for economy with Warwickshire County Council, said: “The Business Ready support in this instance was bespoke as it addressed specific needs brought about by the Covid pandemic.”

Stoford delivers Berry Global’s new job-creating production plant

Commercial property developer

Stoford has handed over a new purpose-built production plant in Leamington Spa that will create more than 100 new jobs.

Plastics manufacturing company Berry

Global has taken receipt of a new 166,859 sq ft unit at the multi-million pound Spa Park o Tachbrook Road.

The new plant will wash, sift and sort used plastics that will be recycled to produce food-grade materials. When fully operational the facility will be capable of processing seven and a half tonnes of material per hour, with a zerowaste policy.

Spa Park has been developed by Stoford and is wholly owned by BlackRock.

Darryl Roadnight, Strategic Projects

Director at Berry said: “We believe in the power of recycled plastic to positively influence the environmental sustainability of our world.”

Stoford Director, Edward Peel said: “Berry is a global leader in plastic and recycled packaging products that has chosen to invest in a new bespoke recycling facility at Spa Park. Its arrival has created many new and highly skilled jobs in the region.”

World’s largest private fusion energy company buys Sprint Power

TAE Technologies, the world’s largest private fusion energy company, has formed a new subsidiary, TAE Power Solutions and acquired West Midlands-based Sprint Power, one of the largest transport electrification specialists in Europe,

Spun out from California-based TAE Technologies, TAE Power Solutions intends to deliver a first-of-its-kind technology to improve the reliability, e ciency, longevity and a ordability of electric-powered products, from vehicles to renewable energy storage. The proprietary technology platform is derived from fusion research and the company says it is a foundational step toward mass onboarding of electric vehicles and deployment of intermittent renewable energy as dispatchable power.”

TAE Power Solutions has also acquired Towcester-based Eltrium, a design and manufacturing company specialising in the production of energy storage systems, power distribution, and electronic assemblies.

Kedar Munipella, CEO of TAE Power Solutions, said: “Spinning o TAE’s power management division is an extraordinary opportunity to bring the bold innovations of fusion-derived technology into new applications with profound impact.

The launch of TAE Power Solutions is the latest in a list of significant milestones for TAE Technologies. In 2022, the company announced it had exceeded its fusion reactor performance goals and had closed a $250 million financing round from investors Google, Chevron, and Sumitomo Corporation, among others, bringing its total raised to date to $1.2 billion.