Coveris proudly announces the successful establishment of a center of excellence for wicketted bags at its Hartlepool facility. This state-of-the-art, high-performance speciality bag-making operation has significantly expanded its capacity for wicketted bags, effectively meeting the growing demand for sustainable and high-quality food and drink packaging solutions, particularly within bakery, produce, and sanitary product sectors.
Renowned as one of the UK’s largest manufacturing sites for wicketted bags, the Hartlepool facility serves as a vital production hub for lightweight, recyclable packaging formats. By adopting a vertically integrated production model, the site leverages Coveris’ in-house extrusion, reprographics, platemaking, printing, and conversion processes. This integration results in reduced lead times, enhanced service responsiveness, and streamlined technical advancements.
At the core of Coveris Hartlepool’s wicketted bag range are the MonoFlex Lite monomaterial films, available in polyethylene (PE). These films are engineered for optimal sustainability and product performance, making the bags suitable for chilled, frozen, and ambient storage. Moreover, they have proven effective on fast-paced packing lines, ensuring efficiency in food and drink packaging operations.
With the capability to feature up to eight-colour flexo print, Coveris’ wicketted bags blend aesthetic appeal with functional enhancements, such as bottom gussets, captive flaps, and resealable closures. Additionally, these bags can be equipped with Coveris’ award-winning Freshlife® technology, which extends product shelf life, maximizes freshness, and minimizes food waste. This aligns seamlessly with Coveris’ No Waste sustainability strategy.
David Humes, Plant Manager at Coveris Hartlepool, stated: “With our new UK center of excellence and extensive capacity for wicketted bags, we support brands, manufacturers, and retailers with expert packaging and service. Our capabilities in extrusion, print, and bag-making to brand and colour management are backed by years of experience and technical understanding. This puts us in a strong position to meet seasonal demands, product-specific requirements, packaging legislation, and sustainability targets within bakery, produce, and personal hygiene markets for wicketted bags.”
In advancing sustainability for wicketted bag manufacturing, Coveris operates the award-winning ReCover Louth de-inking and recycling facility. This initiative effectively closes the loop in plastic packaging by processing production waste from Coveris and its clients, resulting in high-quality recycled resin suitable for non-food contact applications, fully compliant with the UK Plastic Packaging Tax.
With a Gold EcoVadis sustainability rating, Coveris Hartlepool ranks in the top 5% of assessed businesses worldwide. Additionally, the site achieved an AA+ BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7 certification, reflecting superior environmental and manufacturing standards.
Beyond the food and drink packaging sector, the Hartlepool location caters to clients in banking, healthcare, medical diagnostics, mailing, security, and e-commerce, delivering performance specialty bags with the same exceptional level of expertise.
Recently, Coveris was honored as the Packaging Company of the Year at the UK Packaging Awards and received the Gold Award for Sustainable Packaging Business of the Year at the 2025 Environmental Packaging Awards.
