Innovation and diversification is key to the success of James Cropper, a 6^th generation family business, based in the English Lake District

Richard Burnett is Head of Technology and Innovation at James Cropper, a prestige supplier of custom-made paper products to many of the world’s leading luxury brands, art galleries and designers.

Richard oversees the Technology & Innovation function at James Cropper, with projects including the Colourform moulded packaging proposition and the acquisition of Technical Fibre Products Hydrogen, a world leader in green hydrogen technology. 

Richard led the implementation of the CupCycling programme, introducing the world’s first upcycling process for take-away coffee cups.

They discuss the challenges facing the packaging industry, and how James Cropper is both innovating and diversifying, with innovations in speciality paper, bespoke luxury packaging, and advanced non woven and electrochemical materials. We hear about developments in materials, in packaging design, and in manufacturing technology.

Podcast host Catherine Weetman is a circular economy business advisor, workshop facilitator, speaker and writer.  Her award-winning book: A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business includes lots of practical examples and tips on getting started.  Catherine founded Rethink Global in 2013, to help businesses use circular, sustainable approaches to build a better business (and a better world).

Stay in touch for free insights and updates… 

Read on for a summary of the podcast and links to the people, organisations and other resources we mention.

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Links we mention in the episode:

• A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business – buy from any good bookseller, or direct from the publisher Kogan Page, which ships worldwide (free shipping to UK and US) and you can use discount code CIRCL20 to get 20% off. It’s available in paperback, ebook and Kindle. If you buy it from online sources, make sure you choose the new edition with an orange cover!
  
• Sign up to get the podcast player and shownotes for each new episode emailed to your inbox
  

• James Cropper links:
  https://www.jamescropper.com/
  https://www.linkedin.com/company/james-cropper-plc/
  https://www.instagram.com/jamescropperspecialitypaper/
  https://www.youtube.com/@JamesCropperPaper
  
• Richard Burnett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-burnett-3a4b401/
  

Books, people and organisations we mentioned

• Collabor(h)ate: How to build incredible collaborative relationships at work (even if you’d rather work alone) by Dr Deb Mashek https://www.debmashek.com/book
  
• Renewcell https://www.renewcell.com/
  

About Richard Burnett

Richard Burnett, Head of Technology and Innovation at James Cropper

Richard is responsible for overseeing the Technology & Innovation (T&I) function at James Cropper, which since its inception has been set up to explore and deliver step-change growth to the company. This has included establishing the Colourform moulded packaging proposition and the acquisition of Technical Fibre Products Hydrogen, a world leader in green hydrogen technology.  Under Richard’s leadership T&I at James Cropper is entering into a new and exciting phase, accelerating current decarbonisation projects and developing new ones. 

Richard graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in Paper Science in 2002. From there, he worked for UPM for 12 years in roles across the business, starting in Operations and Technical before moving into Supply Chain and Sales. Richard joined James Cropper Paper eight years ago as Technical Sales Manager where he led the implementation of the CupCycling programme which saw the papermaker introduce the world’s first recycling process and award winning innovation dedicated to upcycling take-away coffee cups. Richard then moved into the role of Recovered Fibre Operations Manager in 2020, leading the growth in the use of Recovered Fibre in the Paper business. 

James Cropper

James Cropper is a prestige paper innovator based in the English Lake District, supplying distinct, custom-made paper products to many of the world’s leading luxury brands, art galleries and designers.  Throughout 176 years of high-quality paper production, the business has been carefully stewarded and nurtured by six generations of the Cropper family and is renowned globally for individual expertise in colour and fibre innovation.      

Interview Transcript

Click here to open the transcript…

Want to find out more about the circular economy?

If you’d like to learn more about the circular economy and how it could help your business, why not listen to Episode 1, or read our guide: What is the Circular Economy? 

To go deeper, you could buy Catherine’s book, A Circular Economy Handbook: How to Build a More Resilient, Competitive and Sustainable Business. This comprehensive guide uses a bottom-up, practical approach, and includes hundreds of real examples from around the world, to help you really ‘get’ the circular economy.  Even better, you’ll be inspired with ideas to make your own business more competitive, resilient and sustainable. 

Please let us know what you think of the podcast – and we’d love it if you could leave us a review on iTunes, or wherever you find your podcasts.  Or send us an email…

Podcast music

Thanks to Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow, otherwise known as the brilliant, inventive and generous folk duo, O’Hooley & Tidow for allowing me to use the instrumentals from the live version of Summat’s Brewin’ as music for the podcast. You can find the whole track (inspired by the Copper Family song “Oh Good Ale”) on their album, also called Summat’s Brewin’.  Or, follow them on Twitter.

103 Algramo – Refill the future

30th April 2023


Circular economy


Packaging


reuse


supply chain

Reusable packaging startup Algramo is going from strength to strength, and we hear from Brian Bauer and Chris Baker on why customers in Chile, the US and the UK are buying into this. Algramo’s founder, Jose Manuel Moller, came up with a brilliant idea for reusable packaging to help what he called the poverty tax, paid by people who shopped…

102 Jo Spolton – making second-hand our first choice

16th April 2023


Circular economy


enablers


fashion


technology

Jo Spolton is the founder of Rumage, a brilliant online platform that makes it super-easy for people to find – and buy – exactly what they’re looking for across a wide range of secondhand marketplaces. Jo is a Fine Art graduate and was a professional racing sailor. Her adventures when sailing around the world opened a window, showing how badly…

101 Circular is better for people, planet and profit!

2nd April 2023


business models


Circular economy


strategy

Episode 101 seems like a good time to update my ‘what is the circular economy’ summary from Episode 1, back in 2019. In that first episode, I outlined the 5 components in my CE Framework, one of the core themes in A CE Handbook. Those 5 components are product design, safe, sustainable materials, circular processes, recovery flows, and business models.…

100 Catherine Weetman – never too old to be bold

19th March 2023


Circular economy


risks


strategy

Catherine Weetman shares a bit of her backstory, including why she ditched her corporate career to help businesses get clear on how going circular is better for people, planet AND profit. Today’s episode is a bit different – Peter Desmond, who has been a great mentor and supporter over the last five years, was encouraging me to tell people a…

99 Ben Jeffreys – clean, low-carbon, circular cooking for all

5th March 2023


Carbon


Circular economy


services


social value


technology

Ben Jeffreys, co-founder of ATEC, is a multi award-winning social entrepreneur making better things happen. Right now, he’s focused on decarbonising cooking