Page 10 - Packaging News magazine Sep-Oct 2022

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Great Wrap founder
is pro waste-free future
Julia and Jordy Kay co-founded Great Wrap in 2019, when they launched the first certified compostable catering wrap.
a “10-year vision for a world where plastic doesn’t exist”.
Towards the end of 2021, the start-up was recognised for its com- mitment to end household plastic waste at the 2021 FoodBytes! Pitch competition, receiving top honours in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) category.
In February this year, Great Wrap received a grant of more than $500,000, which is going towards the commercialisation and manufacturing of the compa- ny’s certified compostable stretch wrap at a national scale. The grant was acquired in the recent funding round of the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre’s $30 million Commercialisation Fund.
In July, Kay received the Victoria Day Council’s Young Victorian of the Year award, which celebrates inspiring 16 to 30 year- olds who have accomplished great things in all walks of life.
“This is a testament to the importance of climate positive businesses and the rise of female founders stepping into advanced manufacturing. I’m thrilled at the opportunity to share all of the hard work we’ve been doing at Great Wrap and the incredible growth we’ve seen over the past few years,” says Kay.
Great Wrap closed its Series A funding round, also in July, with strategic impact and sustainability investors, achieving a total raise of $24 million, which will enable the co-founders to commercialise the company’s full range of com- postable wraps. ■
Julia Kay, co-founder of Australian startup Great Wrap – the nation’s only manufacturer of compostable stretch wrap – has been named Young Victorian of the Year. PKN takes a closer look at her success story.
JULIA KAY, who co-founded Great Wrap in 2019 with husband Jordy, said she was “honoured” to receive the award.
Great Wrap launched the first certified compostable catering wrap, made mostly from potato waste, with the remaining materials certified compostable.
The wrap has been shown to break down into carbon and water in less than 180 days in commer- cial and home compost, leaving zero microplastics behind.
Since the launch, Great Wrap has undergone significant growth and now operates from its two local factories on the Mornington Peninsula and Tullamarine.
The company manufactures compostable cling wrap for homes and businesses, including home cling wrap, catering wrap, pallet wrap, and pallet caps, and is on a mission to remove the tonnes
of plastic stretch wrap sent to Australia’s landfills each year.
Kay says that from a young age she was drawn to all things mate- rial and design, which led to a career in architecture, where her experience took her throughout Australia and Europe, designing buildings from local galleries to schools.
Working in the construction industry was a real eye-opener opener, she admits, and she was shocked at the copious amounts of waste the everyday business was churning through, with no clear solution in sight.
Kay cares deeply for the land- scape around her and knew something needed to be done.
“It didn’t take much time to dis- cover that in Australia alone we send 150,000 tonnes of stretch wrap to landfills every year and that unfortunately there wasn’t a
We invented the products we knew the world was missing so we can dump plastic once and for all...”
solution to the problem,” says Kay. With this mission in mind,
Great Wrap was born.
“We saw a materials revolution
happening around us. Everything was changing rapidly; energy, transport, and agriculture, yet plastic stayed the same.
“We invented the products we knew the world was missing so we can dump plastic once and for all,” she says, explaining that the com- pany is driven by impact, fuelled by demand, and that the duo have
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