Genera secures investment for its first facility to manufacture sustainable fibre products
Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.
Last week, Genera announced
it has secured more than 118 M$ in new investment for its first manufacturing
facility to produce its Earthable® line of sustainable agricultural fibre products.
With this new investment, the company will able to meet the increasing demand
for its environmentally conscious solutions with a truly “farm-to-table” concept.
Press release: “Genera
Secures Investment for Sustainable Packaging and Fiber Products Made From Grass”,
17/7/2019.
Figure 1. Moulded fibre products made by Genera
(take from its website)
Location
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Vonore (Tennessee,
USA).
TennEra
LLC, an affiliate of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF)
has leased its former biorefinery in Vonore to Genera for the development of
the new manufacturing facility.
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Feedstocks
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Locally
grown grasses and other agricultural crops.
Genera has already begun to work with local
East Tennessee farmers to produce the feedstock and is actively seeking
additional farm partners in the region.
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Products
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Compostable
food service packaging products like plates, bowls and takeout containers.
In
addition to making products that are a sustainable alternative to plastics,
Genera’s Earthable® fibres are also used to produce a wide array of paper
products.
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Employment
effect
|
80 new
jobs.
The
company will begin hiring in early 2020, including skilled operators and
maintenance positions.
Even
before the Vonore facility begins operations, overwhelming customer demand
for its products has the company looking at options to increase production
capacity at the Vonore facility potentially increasing total employment by
50%.
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Financing
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It was
anchored by an equity investment from WindSail Capital Group, a growth
capital investor specializing in sustainability and energy innovation.
WindSail partnered with investors Coppermine Capital and Stairway Capital in
the Genera financing.
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Start-up
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Genera’s fibre
production facility is expected to be ready to deliver Earthable® products to
the marketplace in 2020.
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