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Our Mission

Hanmere Polythene is proud to be a pioneer in the Polythene industry. Our mission is to continue on the trajectory that we have been building for the past 50 years, growing to a Pan-European Polythene group that can support the food industry and other sectors at every step of their process. We take pride in our ability to support our clients in their needs to be safe, hygienic and environmentally aware. We intend to continue to develop and improve our offering to provide this in the highest quality, whilst never forgetting the exceptional customer service that our business was built on.

124t

of waste saved
from landfill

54t

of plastic reduction
from just 2 customer audits

9%

average plastic reduction weight
for our clients

Our Environmental Ethos

Hanmere Polythene is an environmentally aware company. We are consistently working to assess and improve the environmental impact of the work that we do, and supporting our customers as they make greener choices. Every product that is made by Hanmere is 100% recyclable, and the business is supporting the development of chemically recycled polymer from post-consumer waste. Ultimately this method of recycling is intended to result in recycled polymers approved for use in food contact materials such as tray liners and plastic bags for ingredients. For our clients, we offer environmental process auditing to help customers limit their plastic use and manage their waste streams. This helps us to provide solutions that use the minimum amount of plastic, and to ensure that it can be recycled responsibly following its use.

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Our History

From our early days as a family-run company in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, we have invested in and expanded our business to make Hanmere the business it is today.

Incorporated on April 6th 1966, Hanmere Polythene was one of the first innovative  polythene  and plastic bag manufacturers in the UK. We quickly began to make a name for our business as an organisation that valued high standards and advanced film technologies. Within 10 years the business had developed both HDPE and LLDPE Films, the latter in conjunction with Dow Chemicals, and was well on its way to revolutionising the processing and printing techniques.

As time went on, Hanmere was able to develop our own proprietary plastics such as StikSak and GS69 in the 1980s, and Hankraft and Hanbar in the 1990s. Alongside this was recognition from leading certification bodies such as the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) in 1999 which was replaced by the British Retail Consortium standard in 2002 and has now evolved into the Brand Reputation Compliance Global Standard (BRCGS) of today. This has been held for more than 20 years under its various forms. This has been consistently held by Hanmere for more than 20 years now. Though our machinery and processes have improved, our high quality standards have remained the same. In 2017, we were able to develop a ground-breaking 30 micron film that was still able to meet the stringent requirements of the M&S Guidelines.

In 2020, Hanmere began the next phase of its growth by acquiring Plasmech. This began our steps into a larger, Pan-European plastics group. Hanmere’s history has led us to some great advances and opportunities in the present day. We hope to continue this legacy.

Investment & Innovation

Constant development and innovation is at the core of everything we do at Hanmere Polythene since our inception more than 50 years ago. We’ve gained a market-wide reputation as pioneers, having been part of transformational industry developments in machinery, polymers and additives. To this day, Hanmere is supporting the newest developments in polymer to expand its capabilities in the modern world.

We are thoroughly committed to continual and substantial investment, installing the latest equipment at our polythene manufacturing plant in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Our modern production facility is home to 21 state-of-the-art extruders, 8 with multi-layer capability all complimented with multiple conversion options.  There are 3 out-of-line six-colour flexographic print presses, and multiple in line single colour presses which allow us to print barcodes, batch numbers and bespoke polythene packaging designs to enhance your products and ensure traceability.

We are a full control polythene and plastic bag manufacturer from raw material to the finished product. Having the latest manufacturing technology at our disposal gives us total production flexibility across all grades of polyethylene polymer and styles of wrap, bags, sacks and films. However, our investment is not limited to production technology, but covers our back-office support tools and SAP based IT systems as well, allowing Hanmere to respond quickly to your requirements at competitive prices.

Give us a call on 01462 474777 to find out more about our latest innovations.

Our Accreditations

Maintaining our reputation for high standards and exceptional quality is incredibly important to the team at Hanmere. As a result, we work to maintain the highest accreditations by implementing stringent quality specifications and working closely with industry leaders to ensure that the products we make are suitable for clients in a range of sectors.

BRCGS icon
BPF icon
Sedex member
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