All under one roof! 

Cepac looks back on its 25th anniversary, having hit plenty of landmarks, with multiple industry awards in the bag and launching of a £53m investment project that will see the doubling in size of its Rotherham HQ facility. But behind the scenes, the company is sitting on a hidden jewel; namely that it is the largest producer of paper-based, direct food-contact packaging all under one roof. 

Cepac has always flown under the radar, right from its establishment in 1999, with our customer partners being at the forefront of everything we do.  Although trade press coverage at the time heralded Cepac as ‘New kids on the block’, the company has diligently and quietly grown its market share in its first 25 years of operation. This growth has been achieved by hard work, ensuring the day-to-day operations run smoothly, and of course using the best equipment available by partnering with some of the best operators in the industry. 

But did you know that when it comes to manufacturing corrugated packaging for direct food-contact, Cepac is in a class of its own? It's a little known fact that the entire portfolio of the Flutepac punnets and trays are manufactured entirely in one site, from start to finish! There is not another microflute tray manufacturer in the UK who can stake this claim, which means we are in a class of our own. The unique facility is reflected in Cepac’s ability to offer class-leading response times to demanding and often seasonal markets.     

At our Darlington site, we are able to undertake every step of the process in manufacturing the wide range of Flutepac items. 

Step one is taking the reels of paper and where required, applying sustainable and fully recyclable barrier coatings. Run on our specialist pre-print press, we treat the reels of paper with the environmentally friendly coating to allow the board to be moisture, oil,  or grease resistant – or all if required. The pre-print capability also enables the supply of sophisticated print using water based inks on the Flutepac trays where customers require brand, product or promotional presentation. Once the paper reels have been treated, we place them onto the dedicated microflute corrugator in the same hall, producing high quality, flat corrugated cardboard for onward processing. 

The next step is to take the pallets of board to the converting hall. Here, the board is sent to a series of converting lines, where the boards can be die-cut into shape and then prepared for the next stage of Flutepac tray production. 

Thanks to investment in the best in class machinery for tray forming, including open and flanged trays to receive sealed lidding at the product packing stage if required, the die-cut sheets are then made into the punnets and trays that our customers need – be it for fresh produce, baked goods, food to go and so much more. Once the job has been run, the punnets and trays are then packed into outer transit boxes, which are also made inhouse! 

So there you have it – from paper reel to finished punnets or trays, and finally packed into a shipping box to ensure speedy delivery to your facility – all from one factory that is BRCGS AA+, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 accredited. We are one of the UK’s largest producers of direct food-contact microflute corrugated packaging all under one roof, which ultimately means we get you what you want, faster than any other supplier to the sector. 

For more information on Flutepac, visit flutepac.co.uk