Welcome to the last edition of Viscose Voice for 2025!
We can’t believe it is already the end of 2025; we are now looking forward to 2026 and what it is going to bring our business.
Below we discuss this year’s festivities, the recent announcement of our new Australian distributor, highlights of 2025 and more…
Christmas 2025:
This year we made a £1000 donation to the charity FareShare on behalf of our customers. FareShare is the UK’s national network of charitable food redistributors whose goal is to reduce food waste by rescuing good, in-date surplus food from across the food supply chain (producers, manufacturers, retailers, etc.) and redistribute it via charities and community groups to people facing food insecurity. To find out more about them and their vital work visit their website for more info.
2025 Mr X Appeal:
The Mr X Appeal is a local scheme in South Wales that provides Christmas presents for children in need. The Mr X charity works with nearly 150 childcare agencies and is a massive operation that requires a tremendous amount of organisation. We have supported this charity for many years, and this year our staff donated 29 bags filled with toys, clothes, and books to be given to children across South Wales – a testament to our brilliant team.
If you would be interested in finding out more and supporting this cause, you can find them on Facebook.
Viscose Christmas Jumper Day:
On the 11th of December our staff all wore Christmas jumpers to work in aid of the charity Save The Children, whose mission is to keep children in the UK and around the world safe, healthy and learning. We raised over £70 for this vital cause.
Christmas Hampers:
If you visited our stand at London Packaging Week back in October and scanned one of our stand badges — or we scanned your badge — you were automatically entered into our luxury Christmas hamper giveaway, where three lucky winners each won a festive hamper!
A huge thank-you to our wonderful customers who generously donated treats for the hampers:
- Radnor Hills
- Hayman Distillers
- Salcombe Distilling Company
- Isle of Wight Distillery
- Brockmans Gin
- Edmunds Cocktails
- Tovali Limited
- Berry Bros. & Rudd
- Mr Vikki’s Limited
- Sweetdreams Ltd
We truly appreciate your support and contributions!
The hampers ready to be sent to the lucky winners!
Exciting news…
New Distributor Announcement- Tamper Evident Pty Ltd
We’re excited to announce our partnership with Tamper Evident Pty Ltd (Tamper Evident), the exclusive distributor of our plastic-free shrink sleeves in Australia. This collaboration makes our sustainable, high-quality packaging solutions more accessible to Australian businesses.
Tamper Evident is a leading distributor specialising in secure and innovative packaging across sectors including healthcare, aviation, and logistics. Their expertise in tamper-evident solutions such as labels, seals, and tapes makes them an ideal partner for us.
Our MD, Emma Blackmore, said:
“Partnering with Tamper Evident allows us to bring our innovative, plastic-free packaging solutions to Australian businesses efficiently. Their expertise and commitment to quality perfectly align with our values of sustainability and innovation.”
Tony Renkin, Owner of Tamper Evident, added:
“We’re excited to bring biodegradable non-plastic tamper-evident shrink sleeves to the Australian market, helping businesses reduce their environmental footprint.”
This partnership reinforces our commitment to environmentally responsible packaging and expanding sustainable solutions globally.
For enquiries about our plastic-free shrink sleeves in Australia, contact Tamper Evident or visit the website.
Read our official announcement here.
Rhys Williams returns to Viscose:
We’re thrilled to share that Rhys Williams has re-joined Viscose after two years away, taking on the role of Innovation, Process & Environmental Manager. In his new role, Rhys will be leading innovation initiatives, streamlining company processes, and driving forward our environmental policies. Rhys first joined Viscose in 2017 through a research placement with Swansea University as part of his master’s degree, later becoming a full-time Chemical Engineer and spending six great years with us before moving on in 2023. It’s a true full-circle moment to have him back with the team — welcome back, Rhys!
Sean Healy work anniversary:
Our wonderful and dedicated staff are key to keeping our business going.
On the 19th of October, we celebrated our Cellulose Lead Hand, Sean Healy’s 5-year work anniversary at Viscose! Well done Sean and a big thank you for your continued commitment to our business.
Swansea Bay Business Awards 2026:
We are excited to announce that we have been recognised as 1 of 3 businesses in the Manufacturing Business of The Year category at The Swansea Bay Business Awards for the 2nd year in a row! We’re thrilled to have been shortlisted for this award, well done to the other companies shortlisted too. We look forward to the awards evening on the 30th of Jan at Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall.
Top 50 Welsh Exporters of 2025:
We’re delighted to share that we’ve been listed among the Top 50 Welsh Exporters of 2025 by Wales Business Insider magazine — ranking at number 42! This recognition is a fantastic reflection of the hard work, dedication, and collaboration across our teams as we continue to grow our presence in international markets. We’re proud to represent Wales on the global stage and look forward to continuing to expand our reach, build strong international partnerships, and showcase Welsh excellence around the world.
You can see the list of the Top 50 Welsh Exporters on page 15 of the magazine.
2025 Viscose Highlights:
As we approach the end of 2025, we reflect on the busy but successful year we have had.
Some of our 2025 highlights:
~ Installation of our new flexographic printer for our heat-shrink sleeves
One of our most significant highlights from this year is our major investment in our new Mark Andy Evolution Series E5 flexographic printing press for our heat-shrink products at our Swansea facility. This advanced press is now full installed and running customer orders.
This is an investment the business has been discussing for years, and we’ve finally taken the plunge! We’re incredibly proud of this next step in our journey and deeply grateful to our amazing team and loyal customers who continue to support us in moving forward.
~ Onboarding new Australia distributor
As mentioned above, we’ve onboarded a new Australian distributor for our plastic-free shrink sleeves- Tamper Evident Pty. As with our new Flexo printer, this is something we’ve been discussing and working on for a long time as a business, so this constitutes a major achievement for our team this year.
~ Adding contracting sleeving and down packing to our portfolio
In our Q2 Roundup edition of Viscose Voice we announced our new services: contract sleeving for both heat-shrink sleeves and plastic-free shrink sleeves and our down packing services for plastic-free shrink sleeve customers.
Contract sleeving is designed to streamline customers operations by allowing us to handle sleeving under your own label, ensuring consistency, confidentiality, and compliance. We can then send your products to their required delivery destination. Whether you are looking to expand your product line or simplify logistics, our contract sleeving service provides a flexible and efficient solution tailored to all your customer’s needs.
Down packing services – on request we can now pack orders in 1500ml tubs instead of the standard pails or tins. These pots are resealable and portable – made for sealing on the go, ideal for startups or small production businesses.
~ Adding tethered caps to our portfolio
Alongside adding our new services, we also added a new product to our portfolio this year with the introduction of tethered 1810 and 1881 caps. We’ve already smoothly and successfully transitioned our plastic closures customers from untethered to tethered caps. Designed to meet evolving sustainability and regulatory requirements, these caps remain attached to the bottle after opening, so reducing litter and supporting recycling efforts. Available in a range of colours and finishes, these closures combine functionality, consumer convenience, and environmental responsibility—further strengthening our tamper-evident packaging solutions.
~ Exhibited at 3 tradeshows
We exhibited at three tradeshows this year: Packaging Innovations in February, Farm Shop & Deli in April and London Packaging Week in October. This is a new record for the amount of shows we have exhibited at in one year! All of the shows were busy but successful. We really enjoyed meeting new and existing customers and expanding our reach within the food, drink and general packaging industries. We will be exhibiting again at London Packaging Week in 2026 too on 16th &17th September.
~ Awards
2025 has been a very successful year for nominations and the achievement of noteworthy awards:
- Eco-friendly Food Packaging Company of the Year Award by Food & Drink Matters Magazine.
- Runner up in the Manufacturing Business of the Year award – Swansea Bay Business Awards
- Shortlisted for both Manufacturer of the Year and SME Exporter of the Year – Wales Business Awards
- Our MD Emma Blackmore was nominated for the Packaging Leadership Award – Women in Packaging Excellence Awards
- Our Marketing & Brand Manager Seren Pontin was nominated for both the Packaging Marketing Excellence Award and the Rising Star in Packaging Award – Women in PackagingExcellence Awards
- Winner of the Sustainable Packaging SME of the Year 2025 – Wales Enterprise Awards, organised by SME News
- Nominated for Swansea Bay Business Awards 2026 – announcement above.
- Our plastic-free shrink sleeves were shortlisted as one of the top ten most innovative products as part of the Innovation Gallery at the Packaging Innovations show in February.
~ Staff highlights:
- We welcomed Jayke Rouse as our New Business Development Manager at the beginning of March.
- Also in March we welcomed back from maternity leave, our Customer Service & Sales Specialist Kitti Kovacs.
- We welcomed Rhys Williams back to the business as our new Innovation, Process & Environmental Manager September (story above).
- We celebrated the retirements of Deirdre Titchener & Jeff Jones in July.
- Staff members who achieved milestone Viscose anniversaries in 2025 include a 10-year anniversary for both our Head of Operations Stephen Armstrong and our Engineering Team Lead Andrew Anderson; 20-year anniversary for our Cellulose Reeler Scott Moore, and 5 years each for our Electrical Engineer Dannie White and our Cellulose Lead Hand Sean Healy.
Looking ahead to 2026:
Here’s a flavour of what’s planned for next year:
- We’ll be exhibiting at London Packaging Week (Excel London) in September.
- The results of the Swansea Bay Business Awards in January.
- Expanding our online shop to include more product lines.
- Increasing our export sales particularly the Australasian market.
- Increasing our sales in printed heat-shrink sleeves.
Watch this space for updates over the next couple of months!
Next Edition:
Thank you for reading Viscose Voice this year, we hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we have enjoyed writing it! Look out for 2026’s first edition of Viscose Voice in March!
Until then, may we wish you Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year from Everyone at Viscose, we look forward to working with you again in 2026!
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