Ben Grant and Josh Kempton are leading the charge in New Zealand 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 NZ-based organic chicken company, Bostock Brothers, along with a handful of businesses in Australia.
Grounded is one of the few companies in the region to offer a range of compostable packaging options made from from bio-based materials, promising no compromise 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 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 non-compostable 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 per cent 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,” said 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.”
Grant said 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,” he said.