Private company

The Paper Cup Company

Logo: Own work, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

European consumer products manufacturing company

The Paper Company is a European consumer products manufacturing organisation based in Clitheroe, Lancashire, United Kingdom. The company specialises in the printing and distribution of disposable paper cups operating out of its European manufacturing facility in Lancashire, England and Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

2006Founded1

The Paper Company is a European consumer products manufacturing organisation based in Clitheroe, Lancashire, United Kingdom. The company specialises in the printing and distribution of disposable paper cups operating out of its European manufacturing facility in Lancashire, England and Ningbo, Zhejiang, China.2

The story

The company was founded in March 2005, initially distributing within the United Kingdom from the home of managing director Mark Woodward. Despite the Great Recession, the company has sustained a 50% growth in trade year-on-year since its foundation, resulting in the creation of its European sales office in Clitheroe nestling in the Ribble Valley and the twofold expansion of its sales and marketing team.

Disposable paper cups have been printed and distributed by the Paper Cup Company for a large number of purposes, including coffee to go, cold drinks, vending, sampling and retail, as well as for medical and industrial uses. The company has produced high volumes of paper cups for major British companies and organisations, including the likes of Nestle, Robinsons, Land Rover, Butlins and Liverpool Football Club.

Although the exact origins of paper cups are unknown, they have gradually gained popularity since the early twentieth century following the development of the Dixie Cup in the United States by a Boston-based lawyer named Lawrence Luellen. The original purpose of this was to promote public hygiene and during the 1918 flu pandemic in the United States paper cups were increasingly used to avoid the spread of infection.

The foundation in 1936 of the Paper Container Manufacturing Company (later to become Solo) by Leo Hulseman in Chicago was the catalyst for the future development of the paper cup industry. In addition to the Paper Cup Company, a number of other organisations have been providing disposable consumer products for several years, including the Dickenson Robinson Group, and Benders in the United Kingdom, the Italian manufacturer Seda and the Finland-based company Huhtamaki.

From Wikipedia’s article on The Paper Cup Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 2006Founded Founded1

Sources

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