Member Article

BIDBI expands its green bag printing factory

Sheffield manufacturer, BIDBI (formerly known as Bag It Don’t Bin It), has expanded its sustainable bag printing company following an investment from Santander Corporate and Commercial.

BIDBI moved their banking to Santander in January this year after the Spanish-owned bank saw the potential for growth in the company, founded and run by Sheffield entrepreneur, Julia Gash.

She said: “Like many young, growing SMEs in Britain, we have always struggled to get sufficient funding from the bank to support our fast growth and this fact alone has prevented us from fulfilling our potential.

“Over several months of negotiation, Santander offered us a holistic package of support worth £400,000 that would support our growth, through a trio of financial products, including trade finance, invoice factoring and a loan.”

The result of this support has meant that BIDBI was able to focus developing its international sales, with great success, as well as improving its production facility in Sheffield.

Liz Pickering, BIDBI’s business relationship manager at Santander visited the factory recently to officially launch the opening of the company’s new state-of-the-art screen making facility, which will speed up production and make big cost savings.

The new screen-making room also enables the company to make photographic quality screen printed bags, tea towels, t-shirts and other textiles, which are highly sought after by the fashion and arts industries in Britain.

Liz Pickering said: “I’m delighted we have been able to support Julia and help her grow her business.

“She is a fantastic businesswoman with a strong plan for the future and I’m absolutely confident she will continue to make a success of the business.”

Bag It Don’t Bin It was founded by Julia Gash in 2007 as a branded, sustainable cloth bag manufacturer, offering businesses an alternative to plastic bags that damage the environment. It now employs 20 people at its location in Neepsend, Sheffield.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .