The glass packaging designer and manufacturer is enjoying a busy start to 2022 with investment and preparation for exciting work for new customers that has sustainability at the heart.

Beatson Clark is a company that’s steeped in glass making history. Its Rotherham site has been a glass plant since 1751, and was family-owned until taken over by the TT Group in 1988.

Until the 1980s the company specialised in pharmaceutical containers but economics, plus mergers and acquisitions resulted in large pharmaceutical companies consolidating to Europe. The demand for amber glass reduced with the onset of strip and blister packs for tablets.

The company first diversified into food in the 1980s and then beers in the 1990s.

“Amber glass suits beer bottles,” explains Lynn Sidebottom, Beatson Clark sales and marketing director. “The majority of our output is actually food. We supply Baxters, own- brand for all UK supermarkets, English Provender, Bart Ingredients and British Pepper & Spice. Almost all [supermarket] spice jars will be made here.”

The company exports about 14% of its products – half to Europe, half around the world including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the Far East. With a 360-strong workforce, the company has a turnover of £65m.

Sidebottom adds: “We are the only glass manufacturer in the UK that makes pharmaceutical glass. We supply about 80% of the total UK market, working with own brands, Gaviscon, Thornton Ross, Covonia and Reckitt Benckiser.”

During the pandemic food sales increased. The company currently serves food (55%), pharmaceuticals (25%), and drinks (20%).

Charlotte Pike, Beatson Clark marketing manager, explains: “When hospitality closed all beer sales dried up with breweries not all – just on-trade, many smaller breweries found alternative routes to market such as home delivery. And food sales picked up. Other sectors fell such as spirits – there was no travel so no duty free sales.”

The company kept its factory operating.“We had to continue production as glass was essential to keep supermarkets supplied with food, drink and medicines,” adds Pike.

The company tends not to manufacture standard size and shape jars (square/hexagonal). “We tend to take a semi-customised approach. We do have several standard jars, but specialise more in bespoke niche shapes and designs,” says Pike. “We make lots of standard bottles for drinks but we try to have our own niche and not compete with the big glass companies. We overlap in some areas but we try to offer different services such as embossing, branding on bottles, lower volumes, flexible tailored productions runs, customising bottles from 150,000 units.”

Emerging markets are increasingly using glass, like male grooming and other packs. Artisan and craft drinks prefer glass packaging too, says Sidebottom.

The glass sector already has a good recycling system in place. UK glass recycling rate is 76%  –  higher than plastic and aluminium – and there is a target of 90% by 2030.

The ‘all-in’ deposit return scheme (DRS) is not universally supported by the sector  as many believe it would ultimately result more plastic production and purchasing.

“There is already an excellent system in place for recycling glass through kerbside collections and bottle banks,” says Sidebottom. “While we would always support improved ways to recycle other materials, the concern is that including glass in the current DRS proposal would encourage more production of harmful plastics to the detriment of natural, healthy and sustainable glass packaging. We would support alternative DRS schemes, such as the digital DRS, which would enable consumers to continue to recycle at home.”

There are also fears in the glass packaging industry that a DRS may lead to a loss of the closed loop infrastructure from local authorities – if the average householder goes to the supermarket and discards his/her bottles and packs, it leads to fewer recycled content bottles.

Beatson Clark has recently installed high-end colour sorting machines – a £1m investment.

It had a local contract with the council but could not cope with the demand for recycling with the previous technology.

“We did not have that level of sophistication – it changes the end product,” says Pike. “It can far better identify ceramics and stones and items stuck in bottles. There is more going to remelt than aggregate as the systems are far more advanced than before. The output is up by 50% and more efficient as machines are not working as hard. We can do more on-site more, control of the quality.”

The recycled content in the company’s glass has increased by 25% over the last five years. The amount of post-consumer glass used in the furnaces generated by its recycling plant has increased from 50% to 75%.

“Three-quarters of the recycled glass we use now comes from our own recycling plant, and we buy in the other quarter,” says Pike. “Previously half of it was produced by our recycling pant and we bought in the other half.”

Elaborating on the company’s investment strategy, Sidebottom says: “We have hefty investment plans for the next few years – a shrink machine is just being installed. The new Europacker will create smaller packs and automatic swabbing will also be introduced. Both furnaces will be installed in the next five to six years. Both will include furnace condition monitoring which uses radar to constantly monitor the thickness of the refractory.”

Beatson Clark is replacing a white flint IS machine with a new machine capable of producing a wider range of sizes, giving more flexibility in its range – a project costing about £2.7m.

There are also new product developments and launches from brands in the pipeline, particularly in the spirits sector, as confidence returns and markets recover.

“We have several new customers with spirit projects for 2022, beginning with a new premium vodka with sustainability at the core of the brand,” says Sidebottom.

“Customers coming back to the UK after major disruption with transportation overseas, need reliable, quality supply. Smaller sectors are growing due to no and low-alcohol, health and functional drinks. We are expecting steady growth of approximately 5%,” Sidebottom concludes.

TricorBraun swoops for UK-based Continental Bottle Company & DiBro

Switched on | Supplier Analysis: Glass

Beatson Clark creates sustainable amber glass bottle for new vodka brand

Beatson Clark appoints new distribution manager

See more top suppliers at:

Flexible packaging experts, Polipaks, are as always, focusing on further developments in improving company capabilities ...

Yorkshire Packaging Systems, winners of the PPMA Group Customer Service Award 2014, Outstanding Achievement Award ...

Yorkshire Packaging Systems Ltd, winners of the PPMA Customer Service & Outstanding Achievement Awards, who ...

Is the government right to delay EPR?

View results of this poll

By using this website you are consenting to the use of cookies. Packaging News is owned by Metropolis International Group Limited, a member of the Metropolis Group; you can view our privacy and cookies policy here.