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Ben Grant and Josh
Kempton are leading
the charge across
the Tasman with their
compostable flexible
packaging business, Grounded,
in their efforts to win the war on
plastic waste.
Having recently launched,
Grounded is celebrating its
new-found growth, following a
successful pilot program with NZbased
organic chicken company,
Bostock Brothers, along with a
handful of businesses.
Grounded is one of the few
companies in the region to offer a
range of compostable flexible
packaging options made from
bio-based materials, promising
no compromise on quality, or the
environment.
Grounded has a complete
suite of compostable, flexible
packaging solutions suitable for
use across numerous industries
and applications, including; food
production and processing, fresh
produce, snack foods, apparel,
retail and consumer goods.
All the packaging is bio-based
and certified to European or OK
Compost compostability standards
for both home and industrial
composting, with its look, feel and
functional properties designed
to mirror that of their noncompostable
counterparts.
Better yet, the range is fully
customisable, and includes
popular and widely functional
items such as stand-up pouches,
snack wrappers and produce
bags in various finishes, which
are all fully compostable and
readily branded to customer
specifications.
In addition to offering custom
manufacture and printing for
established businesses, Grounded
is about to launch a range of
100% compostable stand-up
pouches that will be available in
smaller quantities in order to help
provide a solution for a part of
the market that is currently poorly
served.
Quickly identifying an opportunity
for flexible solutions for small
companies, Grounded has already
started manufacturing its own
range of compostable packaging,
tailored to startups and small
businesses requiring more modest
packaging orders.
“My co-founder, Josh brings an
immense wealth of packaging
industry experience, and together
we are educating small, medium
and large-sized businesses on
smart solutions that benefit both
the company and the customer as
they transition to plastic-free. At
the end of the day, you can’t put a
price on the planet, and a positive
reputation,” says Ben Grant.
“In my experience co-owning a
multi-million dollar restaurant chain
(Bird on a Wire) for a number of
years, you become acutely aware
of the size and scale of the wake
you leave throughout all parts of
the supply chain. As a result, we
became the first business in New
Zealand to go fully compostable.”
“It was this simple transition which
inspired me to create a business
which has the size and scale to
support thousands of companies
across Australasia in their efforts
to implement circular economic
processes and ultimately, help
clean up our oceans.”
Ben says Grounded’s vision is for
Australasia to gradually replace
the use of single-use plastics
throughout the supply chain of
commercial production and retail
environments for good,
“Whether the motivation is
business, or customer demand,
replacing soft plastics with
compostable flexible packaging
is the future, and our team of
specialists are proud to be leading
by example in this market and
supporting companies through the
process.”
New compostable flexible packaging
specialist rolls out plastic-free packaging
solutions across Australia and New Zealand
22 APRIL 2019