An Australian architect and a winemaker in their 20's walk into a bar in Melbourne, they mingle over a Pina Colada (or two) and three short months later they have a business baby named, Great Wrap! This is the story of Co-Founders of Great Wrap Jordy and Julia Kay who created this baby to help eliminate plastic waste in the food industry.
Today, Great Wrap manufacture certified home compostable stretch wrap with their patent-pending formula. Their product is made from food waste and breaks down into carbon and water in less than 180 days.
The Australian owned and based company also uses renewable energy to power their manufacturing.
“We are driven by impact and fuelled by demand and have created a 10-year roadmap for a world in which petroleum-based plastic doesn’t exist”, said Julia.
Customer Focus
Great Wrap first focused on the food service industry with a B2B business model and recently expended their offer direct to consumers. You can easily order from their website and my first two rolls of Great Wrap are on their way to my home as I write this.
From every home with a kitchen to every business. Expect to see a Great Wrap product that can help you put an end to plastic waste.
Challenges
Manufacturing is a capital-intensive industry. There are also factors like global freight that complicate a critical path for production. Great Wrap knew it was important to build a team with experience in supply chain and manufacturing which has helped them to minimise bottlenecks along the way. Julia lives by the adage ‘You don’t have to know everything, just as long as you know who to ask!’
Highlights
Other compostable products in the space are often manufactured offshore. This means that cost and inconsistencies in products are passed on to the customer. So Great Wrap opted to pursue a vertical integration model. By making the products themselves they can ensure exactly what goes into them and how the team is treated.
“We know our factory is powered by renewables because we set it up ourselves.”
Julia and Jordy are also working to set up their own biorefinery by 2023 so that they’re able to manufacture their own feedstocks from food waste too.
Unlike biodegradable products, which generally means the product breaks down into microplastics which flow into our ecosystems and never disappear. Great Wrap uses food waste, is certified home-compostable and worms love it!
Report Card
- Team: A team of 30 biopolymer engineers, storytellers and inventors.
- Product: Completely home compostable alternative to plastic stretch wrap for home and business.
- Market: Direct to consumer, B2B
- Momentum: 20k homes converted
- Impact: 💪 1,881,030 metres of Great Wrap manufactured to date and plastic diverted from landfill.
From The Founders
- Company Name: Great Wrap
- Themes: Biotech, Manufacturing, Packaging
- Summary: Reinventing packaging materials using food waste as our feedstock.
- Product stage: Scaling
- Founder: Jordy + Julia Kay
- Capital raising: Pre-Seed & Seed Round complete
- Company mission: Reimagining today’s materials to solve tomorrow’s problems.
Why the team wants to solve this problem:
One of our favourite quotes from the team about why they wanted to join Great Wrap
“We love the earth we live on and we want to do what we can to protect it”
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