Coveris has completed a centre of excellence for wicketted bags at its Hartlepool site, marking a strategic expansion of the company’s UK manufacturing capabilities for specialist lightweight packaging.
The new centre of excellence for wicketted bags consolidates Coveris’ high-volume production for bakery, produce and sanitary packaging, strengthening its vertically integrated model and enhancing service responsiveness for brands seeking sustainable, high-quality formats. The investment positions the Hartlepool operation as a core supplier of recyclable PE-based solutions for fast-moving consumer goods and industrial sectors.
The Hartlepool facility now houses one of the UK’s largest dedicated capacities for wicketted bags, extending Coveris’ ability to deliver lightweight, recyclable formats across multiple product categories. By drawing on in-house extrusion, reprographics, platemaking, printing and conversion, the centre of excellence for wicketted bags enables shorter lead times and supports continuous technical improvement within the company’s broader packaging operations.
At the heart of the expanded range is MonoFlex Lite, Coveris’ monomaterial polyethylene film engineered for performance across chilled, frozen and ambient supply chains. These films are validated on high-speed packing lines, ensuring compatibility with commercial bakery, produce and hygiene production environments.
Beyond food and personal hygiene applications, the Hartlepool site extends manufacturing to banking, healthcare, medical diagnostics, mailing, security and ecommerce sectors, supplying speciality bags engineered to meet stringent technical and regulatory requirements.
David Humes, Plant Manager at Coveris Hartlepool, said: “With our new UK centre 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.”
The Hartlepool site also holds a Gold EcoVadis rating, placing it among the top 5% of companies assessed globally, as well as an AA+ BRCGS Packaging Materials Issue 7 certification for manufacturing and environmental standards.