Reusable – John Reeves with the firm ’ s range of reusable cups .
FEATURE
Middlesbrough office , 30,000 cups are arriving from the Etihad Stadium after a Manchester City home game . Within 24 hours , all 30,000 will have been washed , scrupulously dried in a hi-tech Meiko machine , boxed up again and returned to the Etihad Stadium for a midweek match .
And during our interview , John takes a call from one of the country ’ s biggest sporting events – another eye-catching contract in the bag .
It ’ s a remarkable Teesside success story – yet in a peculiar anomaly , the firm ’ s only North-East clients are Sunderland AFC and Durham County Cricket Club .
But as the green agenda gets ever more prominent , the appetite for reusable cups looks certain to keep growing .
John said : “ Before 2015 , no one had heard the term ‘ single-use plastic ’ or really mentioned climate change , but they ’ re at the forefront of people ’ s minds now . Our customers are all setting themselves aggressive net zero targets – our solution helps them achieve those targets .”
Last year , Event Cup Solutions had 25 staff , although this can rocket to 100 in the summer outdoor festival season . And the statistics are staggering , with 20m cups washed in 2023 and 40m expected to be washed in 2024 .
Aston Villa in February 2022 was the firm ’ s first major project , followed by Goodwood motorsport and horse racing – customers it still retains .
Eleven Premier League clubs use reusable cups and Event Cup washes for 10 of them , with the exception being Arsenal . Cricket grounds such as
Nottingham ’ s Trent Bridge , Edgbaston in Birmingham and London ’ s Kia Oval are also clients .
The rental-based system measures success on cup retention as opposed to cup losses . And because the cups aren ’ t branded with club logos or team names , there ’ s no restriction to where they can go .
Event Cup ’ s competitors are predominately all cup manufacturers – “ We aren ’ t ,” says John . “ We don ’ t want to sell you cups – we provide a sustainable , reusable solution .”
Instead , Event Cup has tapped into a made-on-Teesside solution , obtaining cups from Eaglescliffe-based Tees Valley Plastics .
The cups , for both hot and cold drinks , are not only environmentally sound , but they save venues money too . The O2 Arena , for example , previously used paper cups . Now , by using ECS ’ s sturdier product , its yield per keg has increased by around 15 pints per keg , with speedof-serve slashed from 17 seconds per pint to nine .
John is also proud that Event Cup Solutions is a Climate Partner-certified company – effectively the gold standard when it comes to green credentials in the industry .
He explained : “ We want to be trusted and have transparency around our environmental credentials . Working with climate strategy experts Climate Partner , we agreed a five-point plan to measure the company ’ s carbon footprint , the product ’ s carbon footprint and create a transparent carbon-reduction plan with a fully certified carbon-offsetting programme . Finally , we have developed a communication plan , telling people all about our credentials and achievements .
“ We identified that 85 per cent of our carbon footprint was outbound logistics – transporting cups to and from customers – so we knew we needed to open wash centres closer to our customers . That ’ s why , on the back of winning the O2 Arena contract , we ’ re opening a third wash centre in London in March .
“ And because we ’ ve been successful in agreeing a five-year contract for the new Co-op Live Arena next to Manchester City , which , at 23,500 capacity , will be the biggest indoor music arena in Britain , we ’ re opening in Manchester , too .”
When describing what Event Cup does , John says , “ Think of hotel laundry – if you stay in a hotel , the hotel laundry brings in the clean laundry while taking the used laundry to be washed . We do the same – but with reusable cups .”
And with a network of four washing plants imminent , he ’ ll have the country covered – all from a standing start in Middlesbrough .
John smiled : “ The usual reaction from people who see what we do here is , ‘ Wow – is this on our doorstep ?’ Everyone I bring in , they ’ re like , ‘ Really ?’ It ’ s like there ’ s this hidden gem on Teesside that has managed to capture some of the biggest-name venues in the UK .
“ And I always say that if we ’ re good enough for the champions of Europe and the world ( Manchester City ), we can wash cups for anyone .”
Visit eventcupsolutions . com
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