Guy Newcombe, CEO of Archipelago Technology Group, discusses the company’s sustainable food packaging solution and how it can address the global packaging waste crisis.
Each year, over 140 million tonnes of plastic is produced globally, but only around 9% is currently recycled. As waste goes, packaging has received a lot of media attention, and for good reason.
According to the UN Environment Programme, the packaging sector is the largest generator of single-use plastic in the world. However, potential solutions have historically been somewhat thin on the ground.
A new solution
Founded by Guy Newcombe, the company’s CEO, Archipelago Technology Group is an inkjet technology company based in Cambridge, UK.
Archipelago has developed a proprietary technology, Powerdrop™, that coats paper and other fibre-based containers with barrier coatings to create packaging for food products.
Powerdrop™ can apply both traditional aqueous coatings and novel bio-based coatings (for example, derived from seaweed and prawn shells) to further reduce environmental impacts.
“The amount of packaging waste generated each year in terms of tonnage equates to about 25 million elephants worth of plastic – that’s fifty times the number of elephants there are left on the planet,” says Newcombe.
“We believe the solution lies in innovative paper-based packaging made from sustainable materials such as wood pulp, sugarcane, or even agricultural byproducts like corn cobs.”
The concept evolved organically, Newcombe continues, with the solution arising from in-depth industry discussions.
“I had been working in inkjet for about 20 years. Then a group of us got together in a coffee shop, deciding that what we wanted to do was to invent the ‘next big thing’ in inkjet.
“So we went out to the industry and asked people what they actually needed. The answers surprised us, and Powerdrop™ was born out of these discussions.”
Scaling to meet demand
A single Powerdrop™ machine can coat up to 100 million packages a year, providing the scale required to meet increasing market demand.
Archipelago currently operates with a small-scale, low-volume Powerdrop™; but Newcombe estimates that 10,000 will be needed to cover total global demand.
“Our existing infrastructure ensures scalability and reliability without licensing out manufacturing. Archipelago plans to directly supply and service the machines ourselves,” Newcombe explains.
The company is already well positioned for growth across several key regions, including the UK, Europe, the US, and Brazil (an innovative market already embracing packaging waste solutions at scale), in addition to India and the Middle East.
Relationships with innovative coatings suppliers are key for continued innovation and alignment with sustainable packaging trends.
“Certainly, the desire to reduce waste makes you everybody’s friend,” Newcombe expands. “Everybody is talking about reducing energy, reducing carbon, reducing waste, and incumbent coating processes are very wasteful. That allows us to supply a Powerdrop™ machine that pays for itself in six months!”
Next steps
In October 2023, Low Carbon Innovation Fund 2 (LCIF2), managed by Turquoise International, invested in Archipelago Technology Group as part of a capital raising round of nearly £1.5 million, comprising both equity and an Innovate UK grant provided under the Future Economy Programme.
Ian Thomas, managing director at Turquoise, comments: “There is growing demand to replace plastic packaging with lower-carbon, recyclable materials and Archipelago’s Powerdrop™ coating system helps to facilitate the switch to fibre-based packaging.
“Moreover, it has applications in a range of other industries to reduce the significant levels of waste arising from traditional methods of applying coatings.”
The investment is powering the company’s next stage of growth and its acceleration to meet market demand.
“Our growth strategy is already clear: we’re continuing to work closely with coatings manufacturers, some of whom are using extremely innovative materials to develop sustainable packaging solutions. We have strong relationships across the supply chain and are now preparing for our next phase of expansion,” says Newcombe.
The company has recently launched a new funding round, with plans to raise £5 million to scale up production and accelerate international rollout.
“We already know who our customers are – major packaging companies and big global brands,” Newcombe concludes. “Our next phase of growth is ensuring the business is scaled up sufficiently to meet the incredible levels of market demand we are already seeing emerge.”
For more information about Archipelago Technology, visit https://www.archipelagotechnology.com/. To learn more about Turquoise, visit https://turquoise.eu/.
