How Potatopak began

Potatopak has been manufacturing potato plates for eight years. How did it all start? How long did it take?

Transcript

Richard Williams (Potatopak - now re-branded as earthpac)

Potatopak started in the early 1990s. We’d seen a product that was similar, but it wasn’t on the market as such, and we thought, well, if we could make it work, it’s got to be an environmental solution here to the decadent society with the throwaway attitude and so we formed a company and went from there.

It wasn’t simple. The machines didn’t work. I’m fortunate, I have 15 years in aircraft engineering in many different theatres round the planet, and so I’ve got a pretty broad horizon on engineering and business in the UK. So you’ve got the HR, you've got all the bits and pieces and background requirements to run a business.

Fortunately in a year, with the contacts I’ve got, the machinery we’ve designed and the drawings we do, we’ve made it work. We actually started manufacturing here in 2000, so we’ve been manufacturing for 8 years – great fun!