About Us
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 complementary business to the Calvert family's extensive orchard interests. The apple industry downturn in the 1970's provided the motivation for expansion of the plastic moulding business, which is now the main focus of 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 Tasmanian market.
Caled Containers is still owned and operated by the Calvert family at the family property in North Franklin and now employs up to 30 staff and several contractors. The factory operates 24 hours and up to six days a week. With the initial aim achieved, the company has focused on a program of continually upgrading our manufacturing equipment to meet our customer 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.
Major Tasmanian customers use our packaging to pack dairy products (milk, cream, cheese and ice cream), fruit juice, mineral water, seafood, bakery products, honey, small fruit and chemicals. A distribution network to distribute our products and takeaway food containers state wide is well established and caters for the needs of smaller customers.
As the major Tasmanian manufacturer/supplier of plastic packaging, bottles and closures for use in food and non-food applications, Caled Containers supports the Principles of the Australian Packaging Covenant and became a signatory to the National Packaging Covenant in 2000. The company maintains strict rules with regard to in-house recycling and complying with the need to reduce the impact of waste material on the environment. The company has developed and reviews its Action Plans every year and continues to comply with the planning and reporting requirements of the Australian Packaging Covenant.
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 blow moulding machines capable of producing bottles ranging from 25ml to 5 litres. Five injection moulding machines produce closures and other component up to 400gram shot size. Three injection-stretch blow moulding machines and one preform blow station are in operation, capable of producing PET bottles and jars up to 20 litres. Three thermoforming machines manufacture lightweight trays, punnets and containers from PET, up to 400mm x 550mm.
Caled Containers is also a distributor of plastic pails, 10 to 200 litre round and cubic drums, 30 litre beverage kegs, pumps and trigger sprayers.