This week Boost My Business throws a spotlight on a Meath manufacturer helping to serve up sanitised cutlery in the hospitality sector.
Fiona Alston spoke to Eugene Healy Managing Director of Trimfold Envelopes about their new product - the Sanilope, which is an envelope for cutlery.
Trimfold have been manufacturing envelopes in Trim since 1971 and have seen many ups and downs in the business over those years, with 2020 proving no different.
"We had a good January, February and March and then the business just crashed from April, May, June, July and August," says Eugene Healy. "We were down 30% each of those months which obviously, we never get back."
During the spring lockdown period Healy got to thinking about developing a new product that would help businesses ensure good safety measures for their customers and help his company get back to manufacturing envelopes.
Cutlery in a restaurant was the focus of Healy's attention, particularly cutlery trays at a carvery or placed in tables dressed for dinner. He was looking for an alternative to ensure that properly sanitised cutlery was touched only by the intended user.
"We came up with this idea that we’d try to sanitise paper and make a cutlery envelope out of it," says Healy, "so the actual restaurant can take the cutlery straight from the dishwasher and put it into a sanitised envelope, seal it up and then hand it to the customer, or they can even leave it on the table because it's protected in the envelope now."
"It went on for a few weeks trying to get the thing to where we wanted it and then we got to check for pathogens to see it there was any germs or bacteria in it and there was nothing," he explains.
"Paper itself is a very clean product anyway, it’s the very nature of the product," he adds.
They found that by introducing the sanitiser solution the production line also had an impact on their own Covid safety in the manufacturing facility.
"Funnily enough, it sanitised the machine on the way though as well as it is over 70% alcohol. The people handling and packing the 'Sanilope’ envelopes in to sanitised boxes all wear PPE as well so as to try to keep the integrity of the product."
They have also worked out a safe process which allows then to print company logos on the envelopes postproduction.
While the Sanilope has been very well received by the industry, with some larger restaurants wanting exclusivity of the envelopes, the level 5 restrictions of course meant that there was no demand for the product.
"It’s been quite limited in what we’ve actually sold of the product but this week has been very active because obviously restaurants are opening up on Friday – this week has seen huge activity around it," he says.
Trimfold’s usual business returned to normal in the autumn. "Our business in September, October and November has been excellent back to, or maybe better than, normal which is good."
They have felt the impact of the increase on mail delivery with their postal packaging in recent months as more people send correspondence to loved ones and shop online.
"Here in Trim we manufacture a large range of envelopes from the church envelope all the way up to C4s, which take an A4 sheet of paper and a lot of products in between – we do a lot of specialist type envelopes as well," he says.
"We keep something in the region of 40 million envelopes sitting in the warehouse at any one time," he adds.
