for more information about stanelco click on the links.

driver's research page link
http://www.moneyam.com/InvestorsRoom/posts.php?tid=7681#lastread
website link
http://www.stanelco.co.uk/index.htm

Further thought...

As the majority of prepared leaf salads are already sold in printed bags why the need to get a Print Station working alongside the GS sealing?

This suggests the material the print is going on is new. What new material? STARPOL?

Hmmmm....... Starpol and Greenseal together. Double whammy?

Hi Tony,
My Info is that Asda are more turned on by Starpol than Greenseal, though they love GS, so I think a double whammy is highly likely.
Alan

Alan

Are you playing cricket this weekend?

The oily one

I am Oily, but I have been promoted to the 1st XI, and My Asda contact is crap and in the 2nd XI.
I know what you are thinking (I think), so let me tell you all what I have been told.
As I said a couple of weeks ago, GS will be available in Asda stores from September, for a 3 month customer feedback study. Based on the results of that more orders will follow. My contact thinks that the feedback is a foregone conclusion, for many reasons, including the one that when people are told something is new and improved they automatically tick the "It's better " box on the form!! The other reason being that Asda do not put anything in store unless they are absolutely certain of its success.
The 2007 thing ties up uncannily with the September + 3 months and my friends certtainty that the trial is a rubber stamp.
One thing I have been a bit quieter about is the local produce pilots in the south. Apparantly these have been tried out with WM for some time, with the idea that Asda will follow. This is now happening. My friend tells me the GS trials are very much the opposite way around. That is why (perhaps unwisely) I was so happy to see SEO as co-hosts to WM in September, in the sustainable packaging forum.
May well be co-incidence, but its a big co-incidence if SEO partner WM at this conference just as the product goes live here, and WM want to follow suit. There is just a chance that WM see the conference as a great time to say to the crowd, "This is what we have exhaustively trialled in the UK, and we are about to get it here, and here are the guys to tell you all about it".
Remember all. IMHO, DYOR and WTFDIK.
Alan

Alan,

'am I wrong or is that the first time SEO have publically stated that they are in talks with WM, about GS?'

What is 'the first time' you are referring to?

Oblo, see post 19396
Alan

Thanks Alan.

Maybe I'm being a little pedantic, but it doesn't actually say they are in talks with WM over GS, although the article focuses on GM.

It says MW is in talks with WM, which we have known for some time, of course.

If MW was asked 'Are you in talks with WM', he would rightly say yes, but was he asked 'Are you in talks with WM over GS'?

We dont know.

Tonyrelaxes,
Spot on with "Through research it seems the good weather earlier this summer considerably increased demand for salads which presumably prevented the immediate trialing of Greenseal. The producers, processors and packers of salad bags were having to work harder than expected to meet a higher demand. Such would be ASDA's pressure on suppliers to supply to their sales led demands (to say nothing of tight margins) that this must have prevented sufficient downtime for machine convertion until a cooler spell" and possibly again with "As the majority of prepared leaf salads are already sold in printed bags why the need to get a Print Station working alongside the GS sealing? This suggests the material the print is going on is new. What new material? STARPOL?" All packages are ink-jet printed with sell by, use by dates and maybe PLA needs different type of ink and ink-jets to give required quality as it is illegal to sell packs without this clearly identified.

To me this will be a good start for SEO to prove the technology can work commercially but will still not be the hundreds of machines immediately and the many other applications for Starpol such as trays and for wrap with the burger chain might prove to deliver the bigger profits more immediately.
This is why I say the "apparent" basket case close to going under and be tipped as a sell could be a good recovery play, as soon as the financing situation is out of the way then SEO has the chance to turn the corner again and will be worth a flutter.

Very true, Oblo. However the article is entirely GS and is from a packaging periodical, and is about the UK and US rollout of GS, so i feel fairly confident that GS is the subject of the talks.
Alan

Oblo.
The 24Feb06 RNS does link WM with GS.
"Both parties have identified specific areas where Stanelco can assist Wal-Mart
meet some of its sustainability objectives in the short, medium and long term
future. These include
- GreenSeal Radio Frequency Technologies and
- a significant number of opportunities were identified for its
Biodegradable packaging technologies.
Wal-Mart has requested that some lines be fast tracked and work on those
projects has already begun, specifically for Stanelco's recently US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) approved Starpol 2000 biodegradable material. "

Alan.
Worrying thought. The season ends in a month or so.
Apart from an Xmas piss-up will there be the opportunity of progress updates?

Everyone.
If yesteredays news items do indeed include Starpol where is this to be manufactured?
I am not sure if JV MMFs are planned for the UK - but I do believe the announced (16Dec05 RNS) production and R&D facility in Tredegar has been shelved.

It gets worse, Tony.
He has confided in me that after this season he intends to request a transfer to a team in a different division, as he feels he is good enough for first team cricket.
:-(
So 16/09/2006 is the last opportunity I will have to speak to him on a casual basis, until the AGM in November, and that may well be the end of a beautiful freindship (from my point of view, anyway).
Alan

Alan
Arrggghhhh...

Andy
I take your point about the "Sell by..." guff being inkjet printed - these change day by day. But there would be 2 different printing involved. Salad leaf bags are also printed in 2 or more colours with Brand, Contents, Serving suggestions etc. These are more permanent print runs, not varied day by day and presumably occur where the film is manufactured, not filled.
Don't know what this means though!

Did no one notice "We are hoping the suppliers to the supermarkets will help us take the technology forward."
Once again, or more accurately "still", a lack of marketing acumen, By now they should have tied up several development partners in this particular market sector, not be "hoping". It is pretty obvious the shake up did not do enough or go high enough. Anyone who has been in a competitive industry knows you cannot achieve anything without proper marketing. It is fairly obvious that no one at SEO was taught it. These guys would be chucked out of the Dragons den in a couple of minutes. Pity because the products have huge potential, but only in the right hands.

depart & Starpol materials can be printed using either water or solvent based inks without pre-treatment.
kim

Kim, Oily, thanks for posting a very informative and interesting article.

I'm inclined to reserve judgment a little, but this looks encouraging.

Thanks Tony.

Alan,

Also, am I wrong or is that the first time SEO have publically stated that they are in talks with WM, about GS?

Yes, as Tony says, The 24Feb06 RNS does link WM with GS.

Nice to know they are still talking though!

Tonyrelaxes- Where did you hear the MMF inTREDEGAR had been shelved? Is that definite?
I thought monies had been obtained to build it?

Now if only chelsea can LOOSE again this weekend, I'll be a very happy chappy.

If the sp drops on monday, I'll cry.
LOL

duplicate

Tweenie

I asked at the AGM (2 May) "exactly where in Blaenau Gwent was the proposed production and R&D facility to be and is it under construction already or even announced by a billboard proclaiming it". I was told "in Tredegar but there was nothing to be seen as nothing had started". More recent research of a drive around and a bit of question asking produced the reply that it was not going to happen/shelved. I forget the exact words but it was pretty definite, and from an authoritative source.

The facility (posh for factory?) was going to cost SEO "around 3m". Not sure if this was before or after the grant promised by the Welsh Assembly Government and the local County Council - I can't find where I got it from but I have a figure of 0.75m in the back of my mind.

Personally I am satisfied to see that they are not (these days) trying to do everything at once and overstretch themselves and our cash. But it does raise my question here of earlier today, where and by whom would Starpol be made if, as we think, ASDA propose using it very shortly?

The SP will not drop on monday. I promise. Trust me, there are some things I know more than you. ;-))

cheers man.