Meet Callum from: Made Not To Last Ltd, based in Wolverhampton. His firm supplies the catering industry with eco alternative packaging with food containers made from Sugarcane Pulp and Recycled Craft paper etc, that are all much better for the enviroment. We catch up with her at Cafe 29 in Perton which were an early uptake of some of his products.
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00:00 Calum, how you doing chap? You alright?
00:02 I'm alright, thank you.
00:03 So, Calum Bailey, quite a young man, but you're a businessman.
00:07 What's the name of the business you're involved in Cal?
00:09 Kade Noctilust Limited.
00:10 Cool, and we're just here at a cafe, Cafe 29 in Purton.
00:13 They use some of the products that you do.
00:16 So, it's all about being eco, isn't it really? Recycling.
00:20 So, we've got some of your products here.
00:22 So, a lot of these kind of products will have plastic elements and stuff to them.
00:26 Just talk us through as to what these are made of and what that means in terms of recycling.
00:31 Okay, so these are made out of sugar cane leaves.
00:35 When the sugar cane is processed, the leaves are took away, blown up into a pulp,
00:41 mixed with water and compressed into a mould to make a type A container that will degrade within four weeks.
00:49 Four weeks? That's pretty quick, isn't it really?
00:51 You can put these in any bin. It's just a pure natural material.
00:55 Fibrous pulp. And they will degrade in four weeks.
00:59 So, that can sort you out before you take away bits of cake and stuff like that.
01:02 Yeah, they're a best seller.
01:04 These are recycled kraft paper, lined with something called PLA, which is polylactic acid, which is a plant-based starch.
01:14 So, that replaces what traditionally a lot of companies, when they use the plastic on it, which then means it can't get recycled.
01:20 Ah, so that makes it watertight as well.
01:22 Yeah, and also, because they're compostable, when you've got hot food in there, you don't get condensation on the lids.
01:29 Oh, wow.
01:30 Because they're breathable, because it's not plastic.
01:32 Okay, so that thing where your chips, you take them back and they all go a bit soggy.
01:35 Yeah, and it drips off.
01:37 Wow, so how long have you been involved in business then, Karl?
01:40 Three years. This was my first business with a loan from the Biz Britain. It's like a Prince's Trust type of organisation.
01:48 Cool, yeah. And it's based in Wolves, yeah?
01:51 Yeah.
01:52 So, Callum, you supply one or two businesses. Just fill us in on the broad spectrum of your customers.
01:59 Yeah, they range from local cafes, up in Wolverhampton, up to factories in Scotland, the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Commonwealth Games, the British Red Cross, a few universities, a lot of places in London, and a few celebrity chef restaurants as well.
02:16 Now, are you allowed to say which celebrity chef restaurants?
02:18 No, no, I can't.
02:19 It's all under wraps. But that's quite a wide, you know, BBC, Channel 4, a place in London. I mean, that's going some, isn't it?
02:28 Yeah.
02:29 So where do you see the business going then? You know, can it get bigger?
02:32 Well, they've just introduced something a few months ago to ban single-use plastic forks and plates.
02:38 Yeah.
02:39 So, the more the government delve into that, the better we'll do, I think.
02:44 Yeah.
02:45 I've already seen an uplift in orders.
02:46 Yeah. And onwards and upwards then. So, will you stay a Wolverhampton firm?
02:52 Of course.
02:53 Good man. And so, people want to kind of find out a bit more about the products. You've got your own website and all that going?
03:01 Yeah, we've got a website with 400 products on it.
03:03 400 products? All of the Eco nature, yeah?
03:07 Yeah. We do printed packaging too, for franchises.
03:10 Yeah. And you were saying, we had a little chat before, you do coffee cups and there's none of this kind of plastic inside there.
03:16 Yeah, they're lined with a mineral.
03:18 Yeah, a mineral?
03:19 Yeah.
03:20 And straws. So, what's some of the more unusual products then? 400 products, that's a lot of products, isn't it?
03:26 Sushi trays, sandwich boxes, kitchen roll. We've dabbled in eco-friendly kitchen cleaners as well. Bleaches that aren't harsh on the environment. Anything catering, eco-friendly, but mainly packaging.
03:44 So, have you always come, you and your family, have you always had kind of an eco set of mind like?
03:50 No, no. None of my family own a business. This is my first business and I got the idea by, I worked at Cheltenham, a race course, and I saw all the plastic cups over the road and stuff after.
04:02 Yeah.
04:03 And I thought it'd be good to sell eco-friendly packaging.
04:05 You just thought there's got to be another way?
04:07 Yeah.
04:08 Yeah, yeah. Well, fair do Callum, and we wish you all the best in future business.
04:11 Thank you.
04:12 Just a quick one, we've just met Callum there, he's fantastic business, and your brilliant Cafe 29 has taken up the products. They're really nice products, aren't they, what do you think?
04:22 They are, they're lovely, lovely products. They feel lovely, they're easy to use, and we've never had any complaints about them. Yeah, they are, they're lovely.
04:31 So, from a practical sense, they've been great using them in the cafe?
04:35 Yes, yeah, yeah, they're perfect. Some of them can be a bit flimsy, but these aren't, they hold whatever we put in them.
04:42 Yeah, they do the job.
04:44 And they look nice, they've got kind of a bit of a rustic, natural feel, you can really tell.
04:48 Yes, which is what I like, I like things like this, so yeah.
04:50 Yeah, great stuff, thank you Linda.
04:52 Alright, you're welcome.