Reusable packaging company expands in Guelph, across Canada

Friendlier, a local reusable packaging company provides reusable packing to multiple companies and food providers in Ontario, has expanded in Guelph.

Chief revenue officer Jacquie Hutchings and co-founder Kayli Dale drew inspiration for the business while living in Sweden as third-year students at the University of Waterloo. Hutchings called the experience truly remarkable and life changing for herself and Dale.

“The whole culture is different,” Hutchings said. “People would go and grab a coffee, and instead of going and grabbing a coffee to go or going through a drive-thru and grabbing a paper cup, when folks go and get coffee, they order their coffee and sit down and drink it in a ceramic mug.”

She said the experience of eating and drinking in Sweden is a part of a person’s day and it’s meant to be valued and cherished, whereas in North America, food and drinks are a means to get some energy or nutrition to move along in the day.

While abroad, Hutchings said they wanted to find a way to help Canadians make sustainable decisions without having it impact their fast-paced lifestyle.

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The duo recently held a grand opening at their new location on Clair Road West as part of celebrating their latest expansion. The company received funding from several government organizations, including Fed Dev Ontario, to setup shop in the area of Southgate Drive.

Hutchings said government funding has played a great role in helping provide funds so the business can grow and offer jobs in the area.

Since its inception in 2020, the company has grown across the country with facilities in Guelph and Ottawa and plan to launch in Vancouver. Hutchings said they initially started at the University of Guelph and used the school’s dishwashers before quickly growing and moving into their own washing facility just north of the downtown.

She said it’s pretty spectacular to see how far it’s come in a quick amount of time and that the company’s newest location was perfect for the application.

“We were able to move in to install two state-of-the-art custom dishwashers,” she said. “What this has allowed us to do is to run extremely efficiently and drastically increase our volume output of washed containers and cups, and different food packaging.”

Hutchings said the business works with a number of food service providers throughout the province and is in partnership with the Compass Group Canada, which runs several cafeterias for universities and corporate offices.

Local manufacturing company Omnia Packaging also creates the business’s custom coffee cups. She said Friendlier had one million containers used last year and are well on their way to two million in 2024. The business wants to become North America’s largest reusable packaging provider.

Hutchings said the company’s goal is to simplify the transition from single-use packaging to reusable packaging. She said it wants to make that transition to re-use as seamless and as affordable as possible.

“When we offer our reusable packaging, it’s in a way that businesses can easily divert their budgets that they would have spent on disposable packaging to a reusable solution,” she said.

Friendlier’s reusable containers have kept a lot of waste out of landfills as well, preventing over 312,000 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions, piling up more than 100,000 kilograms of plastic waste, and saving over 14 million litres of water — and counting.