The litho and digital printed carton manufacturer in Welwyn Garden City notched up British Retail Consortium (BRC) accreditation, enabling it to diversify its packaging services to include food producers, said sales director Keith Davidson, whose company was audited by SAI Global.

This follows the purchase of a six-colour Heidelberg XL105, commissioned just over a year ago to enable the business to tackle long runs. It runs alongside an existing B3 Heidelberg, used for short run materials across sectors including horticulture.

"This is a period of exciting growth for us and we want to move into different directions," he said. "We hope food could form 20% of our turnover and aim to increase it from £7m to £10m in four or five years. We serve several markets and will continue to do so: we do not want to overcommit to one market, we've seen competitors do this and get burnt."

The BRC accreditation certifies that the group is meeting standards required of companies supplying food and related packaging. The standard is benchmarked against the Global Food Safety Initiative’s guidance document.

Chief executive Bill Duncan said: "Our move into the food market is a logical expansion of our packaging offering, which currently accounts for over half the company’s turnover. Food packaging is a growth area, particularly in the branded, artisan, sector where we can demonstrate our creativity in packaging design as well as customer value."