Glasgow Lives: David, 36, West end, Owner of Cullen Eco-Friendly Packaging and Owner of Hamilton Academical FC

“Our packaging business celebrates its 100 ^th birthday this year, which is quite an achievement in a rapidly changing world. My father took over the original Cullen packaging family business in 1985, which began as a box making company for premium whisky brands in 1921, on the banks of the River Clyde.

“After school I went to work in the building trade and really enjoyed it, I then took on a sportswear business which I grew and sold in 2009.

“By that point my father had also sold Cullen but was buying back into it because the company was going into administration, and he wanted to save it. We decided to buy it back together, and that was when I first became involved in our family business, we also own Hamilton Accies Football Club.

“I bought my dad out of our packaging business and took over completely, 3 years ago although he’s still involved which is great. We make corrugated boxes for multiple uses and use the waste we generate from making every box to make our eco-friendly moulded pulp products – from everyday things that people use, like coffee cup carriers, to millions of medical products that we supply to the NHS, and internationally, as well as to a variety of major brand name businesses. A big part of our business is supplying to supermarkets, so for instance, when you buy avocados, they’ll most likely come in one of our trays – any type of eco-friendly pulp tray you see in a supermarket will have been made right here in Glasgow by us. We now manufacture half a billion products annually, and ship to 34 countries worldwide. The pulp products that we manufacture can replace most single use plastics that take 400 years to biodegrade, whereas our packaging will biodegrade in 6 months, which obviously has a monumental positive impact in terms of the environment.

“Our primary motivation in buying this business back was to make a difference. We didn’t know then that we would go on to manufacture packaging to replace single use plastic. We were trying to save the company and people’s jobs. From a workforce of 9 when my dad first bought the business, we now employ around 300 people, and some of them have been with us for over 30 years. We’re part of this community, I’ve known some of the people who work on our floor since I was 10 years old. We want to keep our business here and create even more jobs in Glasgow – that’s as important to us as the difference we can make to the planet – and we have to work together to make that difference. I’m very proud to say that there’s so much innovation and phenomenal work going on in Glasgow and across Scotland to make these monumental changes that we absolutely need for the environment. The fact that we can make 100’s of millions of eco-friendly products in Glasgow alone, as well as working with other companies to change things in the ground-breaking ways that we all can, proves just how much more we can do, and with COP26 coming to the city, it’s the perfect time to show exactly what we are capable of, even if we’re not the biggest country in the world.

“At 100 years old, we’re thinking of our past, but even more about our present and future. For me, it’s not an option to just try to work to keep our staff in jobs and continue to make our contribution to saving the planet, it’s something that I must do, it’s as simple as that. We want to create new jobs and employ even more people in the city, and to do that, we’re expanding by building another factory on our site here which means that we can double in size. We’re excited by everything that we’re doing now, and everyone who works here has massive enthusiasm for it, no matter what their role in the company is. We’ll just keep on going to continue making a difference and do whatever we can to make things better. We’re so ready for the future – there’s no slowing down.”