Caled Containers was founded in 1976 by Don Calvert and William Edwards and established on the family farm at North Franklin, Tasmania. William Edwards subsequently sold his share of the business. The company was initially established as a complimentary business to the Calvert Family’s extensive orchard interests. The apple industry downturn in the 1970’s provided the motivation for the expansion of the plastic moulding business. This now remains the main focus of the company activities. The company’s initial aim was to manufacture plastic bottles and closures for use by Tasmanian manufacturers who were subject to high freight costs, inconsistent deliveries and excessively high minimum orders for the small local market.
Caled Containers is still owned and operated by the Calvert family at the family property in North Franklin and employs up to 20 staff and several local contractors. With the initial aim achieved, the company has shifted focus to continually upgrading our manufacturing equipment to meet our customers growing requirements while complying with strict quality standards under the HACCP food safety system.
In 2011 a Business Continuity Plan (Primary reference; Australian Standard 3745 2010) was implemented to cover the event of a major disruption to the business.
250kw of solar panels have been installed to reduce energy costs.
Major Tasmanian customers use our products to pack various dairy products (milk, cream, cheese and ice cream), fruit juices, mineral water, seafood, bakery products, honey, small fruits and chemicals. We have worked hard to establish a wide network of distributors that can cater to the needs of smaller customers.
Refer to our sustainability page for current initiatives.
The majority of the company’s products are manufactured using Polyethylene (HDPE) and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and modest amounts of other miscellaneous materials. The company has:
- Nine extrusion blow moulding machines capable of producing bottles ranging from 25ml to 5 litres
- Six injection moulding machines producing bottle/jar closures and other components up to 400gm shot size
- Four injection stretch blow moulding machines, soon to be five.
- Three pressure and vacuum thermoforming machines manufacturing lightweight tray, punnets and containers from PET, up to 400mm x 750mm
Caled Containers is also a distributor of plastic pails, bottle/jar closures, 10 to 200 litre round and cubic drums, pumps and trigger sprayers.