FEATURE
Slick operation – Thousands of cups are washed , dried and packed at the firm ’ s Skippers Lane HQ .
CUP WINNERS
Middlesbrough firm ’ s drinking cup solution sees it team up with sport and music giants
PICTURES : TOM BANKS WORDS : DAVE ROBSON
If you ’ ve supped from a cup at a Premier League game , there ’ s a good chance the cup you drank from will have originated on Teesside . In an unassuming unit on Middlesbrough ’ s Skippers Lane Industrial Estate , a slick operation ensures sporting stadia and music venues across the country are supplied with reusable cups to quench the thirsts of their customers .
From Premier League giants such as Manchester City , Aston Villa , Tottenham Hotspur , Chelsea and Liverpool , major venues such as The O2 Arena in London and summer festivals such as Kendal Calling – all rely on Teesside-based Event Cup Solutions for their drinking vessels .
Historically , festival or sports venues would use disposable , single-use or branded cups , leading to high loss rates , large amounts of waste and or and complicated , cumbersome deposit schemes .
With Event Cup Solutions , however , its reusable ONE Planet ONE Chance ® branded cups are taken away , washed and returned . And because they ’ re reusable , they not only save the client money , they ’ re also good for the environment .
Home – John Reeves at Event Cup ’ s Middlesbrough base .
The remarkable Event Cup Solutions story began when John Reeves , who had worked in the packaging industry selling singleuse products , noticed the beginnings of a change in direction towards sustainable , reusable solutions .
Having set up a consultancy advising firms on EU regulations on single-use plastics , together with West Midlands-based Event Hire Group MD Les Vipond he hatched a plan .
With grant support from the Tees Valley Combined Authority , John , who has lived on Teesside for many years , set up the Skippers Lane plant in 2021 and installed his first cupwashing machine in 2022 .
Now , from zero turnover in 2019 , the firm has flourished and is expected to reach revenues in excess of £ 4m in 2024 . Not only that , by this summer , it will be operating cup-washing plants in Middlesbrough , Manchester , London and Birmingham .
As Tees Business talks with John in the
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