We provide equipment cleaning products to the drinks trade. Originally focused on beer-line cleaning, we have now moved into soft drinks and, after trials in the Napa Vally, California, the wine industry. Our aim is to enable the removal of caustic cleaners from the trade as our primary product is, uniquely, PH neutral (7). The trials in California have shown that the system is a) a very effective cleaner b) can be recycled and reused. Hence, as well as not damaging the environment, the systems will facilitate a very big reduction in water usage – usage which currently runs to hundreds of thousands of litres per winery.
As the wider market wakes up to the fact that there is an alternative to the enshrined use of dangerous (to staff and the environment) caustic products to clean equipment we recognise that we will need to franchise out production of the system around the world. Currently our production facilities are in the English Midlands, but it makes no sense to be massively helping the planet in, say, California while having to ship products there from the UK. We are also looking to mitigate our carbon footprint by seeking alternatives to Chinese production of elements of our technology that currently are shipped from there. We are in late stage testing to remove plastic packaging from our product range. The alternative being tested will be compostable. Water management has become a key element of our offer. We knew that billions of litres of contaminated water were being flushed into the water table/rivers/seas every day via beer line cleaning caustic processes. Our technology allows the cleaning regime to move from the recommended seven days to 28 days, so massively financial costs to users and environmental costs for the planet. Our discharge water is harmless to aquatic life and the wider environment. Our chemists are working to widen the usage for our chemistry and we have a number of products in the pipeline which will provide a better cleaning result without caustic products being used. We are the very definition of green tech! We are actively seeking partners around the world to help us get a swift expansion of the system and so start reducing environmental harms everywhere. As well as the US agency we are engaged in discussions about securing an Australian partner soon.
Looking ahead, what are the longer-term company goals?
The main dependency will be the speed of securing scale in each country sufficient to justify local production. We started our arrangement with our American partners in Q2 last year and progress has been as such – in both the beer and wine sectors – that building a production facility in California is now being scoped out. With the right partners we feel we could be making a huge difference in three years.