Pulpex has opened its first commercial manufacturing facility for fibre bottles, scaling up from pilot-scale production with an initial capacity of up to 40 million units per year.
Located at Westway Industrial Estate in Glasgow, Scotland, the facility is expected to support customer launches, scaled production, and future manufacturing partnerships.
Pulpex’s fibre-based bottles are said to utilize sustainably sourced wood pulp. They are designed for compatibility with established filling infrastructure and to be recycled through existing household paper and card recycling systems at end-of-life.
According to the company, its paper bottles offer a renewable, lower-carbon alternative to traditional bottles without requiring major modifications to existing production lines.
Over 90% of the new site’s initial available capacity for the current year has already been committed. Launch customers include Purely Scottish Natural Mineral Water, claiming to be the UK’s first natural mineral water sold in a paper bottle, and cleaning brand smol, which is introducing fibre-based bottles to its liquid laundry products.
The Glasgow facility will also serve as the reference plant for Pulpex’s international licensing strategy, which makes use of established packaging production sites and manufacturing partners already serving regional markets.
Pulpex hopes that transferring its technology and operating model into existing infrastructure will accelerate production, unlock production closer to customer demand, and support alignment with regional supply chains and recycling systems.
Perlen Industrieholding AG is Pulpex’s initial Manufacture Under License partner in Europe, securing manufacturing exclusivity in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and southern Germany.
As a precursor to a full manufacturing partnership, Alternicq has secured exclusive rights to develop the market across India and the Gulf Cooperation Council region.
These partnerships are anticipated to establish a global manufacturing network and increase Pulpex’s 40 million-unit capacity in Glasgow towards an ambition of one million units annually.
“With an initial capacity of up to 40 million units a year, Glasgow is the first step on our path to one billion units globally,” said Scott Winston, managing director and chief Science and Sustainability officer at Pulpex. “This facility demonstrates how UK-developed innovation can create skilled manufacturing jobs, support lower-carbon packaging solutions and provide a scalable platform for international growth.”
“The opening of our Glasgow facility marks the moment Pulpex moves from proving the technology to proving the industrial model,” added Pulpex CEO Sandy Westwater. “Every Manufacture Under Licence discussion we have from today is a conversation about a working manufacturing facility rather than a prototype.”
In other news, Frugalpac unveiled its high-speed FBAM-2 machine back in April. Said to be capable of producing 14 million paper bottles a year, the technology is designed for installation at bottling plants and packaging facilities worldwide, manufacturing its fibre-based Frugal Bottles at scale.
ACG Packaging Materials has released RecycloPod PP Ultra, a polypropylene-based blister packaging system that offers recyclability and barrier protection
