In brief
Pulpex, the paper bottle company Pilot Lite co-founded with Diageo in 2020, opened its first commercial-scale factory at Westway, near Glasgow, in October 2026.
The plant has capacity for up to 40 million bottles a year, and more than 90% of initial output is already committed.
Launch brands are smol, in liquid laundry, and Purely Scottish, with the UK's first natural mineral water in a paper bottle.
The bottle is made from wood pulp with no hidden plastic and recycles with household paper and card.
The lesson for CPG: breakthroughs rarely fail in the lab. They fail between prototype and production. Pulpex got through because the factory was in the plan from day one.
A paper bottle is now a production reality
In 2020, Pilot Lite and Diageo set out to answer a question the industry had been circling for years. Can a bottle be made from paper, with no hidden plastic, and still perform like glass or PET?
Six years later, the answer is on a production line. Pulpex's first commercial factory opened near Glasgow in October 2026. smol and Purely Scottish launch in Pulpex bottles this autumn.
Pulpex CEO Sandy Westwater describes the moment as a move "from proving the technology to proving the industrial model." That distinction matters more than the bottle itself.
What is the Pulpex paper bottle?
The Pulpex bottle is a single-mould fibre bottle made from sustainably sourced wood pulp. The barrier is formed directly onto the fibre, so there is no separate plastic liner. The bottle goes into the household paper and card recycling stream.
Three things make it commercially viable, not just technically interesting:
It runs on existing filling lines. Brands do not need to retool their factories to adopt it.
It decorates direct to shape. The bottle itself becomes the brand canvas on shelf.
It scales through licensing. Under a Manufacture Under Licence model, packaging converters produce Pulpex bottles close to regional demand. Glasgow is the reference plant for that global rollout.
Why CPG breakthroughs stall before they scale
CPG does not have an invention problem. It has a scale problem.
Most breakthroughs do not die in the lab. They die in the gap between a working prototype and a working factory. That is where capacity has to be built before volume exists, and where most corporate operating models are designed to say no.
The logic is circular. Brands will not commit volume without proven supply. Manufacturers will not build supply without committed volume. Innovation budgets cover the prototype. Capital budgets wait for certainty. The idea sits in between, waiting for someone else to move first.
Pulpex broke that loop by refusing to treat manufacturing as a later phase. The factory was part of the plan from day one, and demand was secured before the doors opened. More than 90% of Glasgow's initial output was committed at launch.
This is what we mean by From Stuck to Shelf to Scale. Stuck is the gap. Shelf is product physically in market. Scale is a model that can be repeated in every region that wants it.
How Pilot Lite and Diageo built Pulpex
Diageo wanted a scalable, lower-carbon alternative to glass and plastic. Nothing on the market met the brief. The job was not picking a supplier. It was creating a technology, then a company to make it.
Pilot Lite's role ran across the whole journey:
Explore. Scouted fibre and barrier technologies globally and identified the materials partners the bottle would need.
Build. Worked with Diageo to solve the technical challenges of a single-mould fibre bottle through multiple iterations, then established Pulpex as a standalone packaging technology company.
Deploy. Built the partner ecosystem and supported the first test manufacturing line. A consortium of global brand owners, including PepsiCo, Unilever, Kraft Heinz, The Estée Lauder Companies and Castrol, signed on as offtake partners.
Those offtake commitments did the heavy lifting. They turned a promising material into a bankable business. In 2025, the UK's National Wealth Fund and the Scottish National Investment Bank led a $78 million Series D to fund the Glasgow plant.
What CPG leaders should take from Pulpex
Fund the factory question early. If manufacturing is phase three, the project will likely stall at phase two. Capacity planning belongs in the first business case, not the last.
Secure demand before supply. Offtake agreements from multiple brand owners de-risked Pulpex for investors and for each partner. Shared commitment beats single-company bets.
Design for existing infrastructure. An innovation that needs new filling lines or new recycling streams asks the whole system to change at once. Pulpex asked for neither.
Separate the venture from the parent. A standalone company can move at venture speed while the corporate partner keeps the strategic upside.
The next wave of packaging, ingredients and format breakthroughs will face the same gap. The companies that win will be the ones who plan to cross it from the start.
About Pilot Lite
Pilot Lite is a global CPG growth execution firm headquartered in London. Over 17 years it has launched more than 220 ventures across 30 markets for brands including PepsiCo, Unilever, Diageo, Danone and Coca-Cola. Its Explore, Build, Deploy framework takes innovation From Stuck to Shelf to Scale.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Pulpex? Pulpex was co-founded in 2020 by Pilot Lite, the global CPG growth execution firm, and Diageo.
Where are Pulpex paper bottles made? At Pulpex's first commercial factory at Westway, near Glasgow, Scotland, which opened in October 2026. It is the reference plant for licensed production in other markets.
How many bottles can the Glasgow factory produce? Up to 40 million bottles a year. Pulpex's long-term ambition is one billion units a year through licensed partners.
Does the Pulpex bottle contain plastic? No. The barrier is formed directly onto the fibre, with no separate plastic liner.
Can Pulpex bottles be recycled? Yes. They are designed to go into household paper and card recycling.
Which brands use Pulpex bottles? The first commercial launches are smol in liquid laundry and Purely Scottish Natural Mineral Water. Offtake partners include Diageo, PepsiCo, Unilever, Kraft Heinz, The Estée Lauder Companies and Castrol.
What did Pilot Lite do on Pulpex? Pilot Lite scouted the technology, co-developed the bottle with Diageo, set up Pulpex as a standalone company, built the offtake consortium and supported the first test manufacturing line.