NEWS : Post

WRAP

Councils in England affected by WRAP's decision to stop supplying home compost bins at the end of September will be able to continue to promote home composting through a broad programme offered by market-leading home compost bin manufacturer Straight plc.

Straight offers a home delivery programme, which the initial WRAP campaign was modelled on, as well as running one day sale events and partnerships with garden centres.

Straight, and its subsidiary Blackwall, have supplied more than half of the bins used in the WRAP campaign since it started in 2003. Furthermore, from 2005 until the beginning of this year Straight also provided order processing facilities including call centre and customer care services. Straight is therefore well placed to offer a virtually identical programme itself.

"We are ready to work with any council requiring the continuation of their programme. Our pricing offers an improvement on WRAP's 2009 rates and our service levels are the same or better. We have also invested heavily in an IT solution to track deliveries ensuring that they are on time", explained Jonathan Straight, chief executive of Straight plc.

"It is true that WRAP effectively doubled the UK market for compost bins. However, in 2008 overall sales fell by almost half as a result of the sales price being doubled up by WRAP. We feel that this is the right time for them to move away from supplying the bins and to leave this activity to those of us in the market who can now offer customers the best value."

Prior to 2003, Straight and Blackwall ran campaigns with almost every council in the UK. These have gradually been taken over by WRAP, but using products and support services provided by Straight. This positions Straight to be able to offer a comparable programme with immediate effect and requiring no input from local authority personnel.

"We take care of everything", added Straight. "Any councils wanting to run for the whole year are of course free to take up our campaign offer from 1st April if they prefer."

And on success achieved by WRAP, Straight is complimentary. "They have helped to double the number of households composting up to 40%. However, as 82% of houses have gardens this leaves a lot of potential. We hope to continue with this good work in the future."