Business Opportunities UK
Manufacturing EcoCover - Replacement for Plastic Agricultural Film

EcoCover products are organic and biodegradable, and our products are patented in 21 countries including EU members Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, the UK, Portugal, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Ireland, Belgium and Denmark (0 789 737), Austria (AT E 196 160), Greece (3034915), Italy (4845/BE/2000), Spain (95935760.9), Sweden (95935760.9) and Germany (695 18 765.1)

In August 2005, the UK Waste and Resource Action Plan (WRAP) evaluated in conjunction with Red Engineering the EcoCover business opportunity for the UK, REF: 747-04.PLN V1.0.  The Executive Summary of the report states:

EcoCover Developments (Vanuatu) Limited (EDL) produces and markets the patented EcoCover range of internationally certified organic mulch products made from waste and recycled materials for horticultural, agricultural and land management use, using materials that are able (and permitted) to degrade directly into the soil.

More than two years of research by two leading Universities, the Southern Cross University (Australia) and Massey University (New Zealand), has scientifically and independently tested and proven all of the EcoCover product attributes.

Manufactured largely from waste and recycled material, EcoCover products can replace plastics in a number of key market sectors at a time of increasing world-wide environmental concerns relating to the disposal of plastic waste and the use of non-renewable resources.

The owner of the EcoCover business, Murray Cruickshank and his dedicated team are in the process of extending the operation to the global market and have commenced the sale of manufacturing plant units in selected countries to produce the full range of EcoCover products.

An opportunity exists to acquire an EcoCover Manufacturing Plant, fully equipped and commissioned in a virgin market territory or alternatively to enter into a joint venture with EcoCover Developments Limited (EDL) in selected locations.

In the UK, early investors will be able to secure plants for [approximately] £780,000 with absolutely no geographical or market restrictions. This is at a time when new legislation regarding the disposal of agricultural plastics is about to be introduced in the UK. In addition to the plant, the offer to investors includes full installation and commissioning, training and documentation, Product Patent Protection for EcoCover products produced, Global EcoCover Brand Marketing and Promotion, research and development services, 24 hour Technical Support and Forum membership.

This Business Plan represents a unique opportunity for involvement in a state-of–the–art product in a high growth area of manufacturing. Additional information regarding the business, the EcoCover products, manufacturing process and market assessment is available in the EcoCover Global Information Memorandum and supporting Product Attribute, Application, Manufacturing and Financial literature.  Read more about the environmental confirmations of the WRAP report for the UK here.

EcoCover as a profitable UK business opportunity is scaleable.  If you are a sole proprietor, owning an EcoCover manufacturing plant running one shift will earn you a handsome living.  If you are an entrepreneur wanting to build a £50 million a year business, fifteen EcoCover plants running 2 shifts will provide enough production to meet that goal.  Based on replacing plastic film used as mulch, the market for EcoCover is huge and essential.

If you are a manufacturer of plastic film used for agricultural and landscaping mulch, you should be looking at the EcoCover opportunity.  The price of your resin is directly tied to the prices of natural gas and petroleum, your margins are low and your products are mostly not unique or brand-able.  Most plastic film is a commodity.  EcoCover will replace plastic film.  The market is huge and essential.  The cost of manufacturing EcoCover is not directly tied to the price of oil and gas.

Read Plastic Product Prices Rise As Natural Gas Prices Soar.

News Item January 29, 2007: Organic Farming Is Here to Stay

You can own your own profitable manufacturing business in the UK making organically certified products that are unique and brand-able:

• EcoCover has no direct competitors, there is nothing else like it on the market.
   
• EcoCover mulch mat products are patented in 21 countries.
   
• The bulk of the material in EcoCover is waste paper, readily available almost everywhere.
   
• EcoCover replaces plastic film and sheeting used for agricultural mulch, landscaping mulch and garden mulch.
   
• EcoCover is 100% biodegradable.
   
• Independently conducted university research has shown that EcoCover stops weed growth, conserves water, enriches the soil, reduces or eliminates the need for chemical herbicides, reduces the need for chemical fertilizers.  We have outperformed plastic mulch in every independently conducted trial around the world.  Read about the research that shows 30 to 40 percent yield increases over plastic mulch.
   
• EcoCover products are environmentally positive.
   
• New product development is ongoing, such as our new EcoPin™ biodegradable pin.

Read what the most environmentally progressive city government in New Zealand has to say about the EcoCover product performance from their experience.

“It is with great satisfaction I am writing to you today as I have recently seen some of the benefits of using EcoCover at some test sites. The instructions you gave for the use of the product were clear and straight forward, its establishment made so much easier. I found the function of the product to be superb as both a weed mat and an additional moisture retention barrier. In addition to these qualities EcoCover's added fertiliser content released over time in parallel with its natural biodegradation, was a brilliant accelerator to growth and plant establishment. The large sites EcoCover was used on were particularly tough, (slopes, prone to drought, waste soils) however, the product responded really well. To top it off its 100% recycled contents pushed all the right buttons especially where our native re-vegetation exercises were being carried out”.

• EG, (Local Council) United Kingdom

Read what other EcoCover users say from around the world.

What makes EcoCover such an interesting and profitable business opportunity?  EcoCover is an environmentally sustainable investment that reuses waste, enhances plant growth and improves the soil.  There is no competition for EcoCover.  Plastic resin, made mainly from oil and natural gas is price connected to the cost of dwindling fossil fuels.  Plastic is not sustainable economically or environmentally.  Over 12 million hectares of plastic is used annually in agriculture and landscaping around the world.  EcoCover replaces plastic

Emerging markets are huge and essential, such as this January 18, 2007 UN announcement to plant one billion new trees this year to combat the effects of global warming.  EcoCover Weed Squares are an excellent mulch and weed control for tree seedlings.  A tree planting project in Australia recently used 84,000 square meters of EcoCover.  To mulch a billion trees would take about 480  EcoCover manufacturing plants running 3 shifts 5 days a week 240 days to create a billion square meters of EcoCover Mulch Mat.  Sale price of a billion Weed Squares would be approximately US $150 billion. Time to repay the manufacturing plant investment? Less than 8 months.

There are lots of profitable opportunities and ideas available for business investment but few, if any, like EcoCover and few that are organic.  Are other ideas sustainable?

That depends on your view of the future.  The forward thinking inventors of EcoCover were in the plastic film and plastic mulch business in New Zealand.  Plastic film and mulch are commodities.  EcoCover is brand-able, and patented.  The future will be much different from the cheap energy world of the past 50 years.  Successful businesses and products in the future will be compatible with Mother Nature, have low input costs, be energy efficient and environmentally neutral or positive.  EcoCover meets all of these requirements.

Agricultural productivity improvements will be in great demand as population increases, energy costs rise and environmental wisdom grows to realize that we cannot continue to pollute the planet with poisonous chemicals and non biodegradable materials used in agriculture.  Landfills are filling up.  Taking up and disposing of agricultural plastic is a significant expense for growers and a major environmental problem for all of us.  EcoCover solves these problems.  Till it in and replant, that's all there is to it.

The EcoCover business opportunity proposition is to purchase one or more manufacturing plants which you own outright with a license to manufacture patented EcoCover products.

• You need about £1.1 million in investment and working capital, perhaps 15 to 25-percent less for an already established business with current cash flow.
   
• You are purchasing a complete automated manufacturing line and ancillary equipment to manufacture the products.
   
• The purchase price includes on-site installation, start-up and commissioning.
   
• The purchase price includes training for your workers and maintenance personnel.
   
• You have the right to manufacture EcoCover products under license.
   
• You get a head start marketing program so that you can begin sampling and selling the products before the plant is in operation.

Besides investment funding, what else do you need?

• A 930 square meter (or larger) building or manufacturing floor space, preferably with floor to ceiling clearance of 7 to 8 meters.
   
• Basic utilities including 3 phase electricity, a source of heating gas (natural, propane, LNG, butane) and potable water - about 600 liters per shift of production.
   
• Material handling equipment (a fork lift truck or cranes) and storage racks
   
• Five plant workers, an office administrator and a plant manager-salesperson

EcoCover new product developments are ongoing.  For example, the manufacturing plant opportunity in early 2005 was:

• The EcoCover plant on site commissioned (meaning installed, started up, workers trained, trials run)
   
• The manufacturing plant capable of producing standard mulch mat and weed squares
   
• Positive results from early research findings

The present manufacturing plant opportunity is:

• The EcoCover plant on site commissioned (meaning installed, started up, workers trained, trials run)
   
• The EcoCover plant is now capable of producing mulch mat, weed squares, EcoCrop mat, EcoCoverRF™ (Hessian reinforced EcoCover) + new derivatives (EcoPotTops), hanging basket liners, etc. with the primary processes all run on the same manufacturing line.
   
• The new EcoPin™ as a stand alone highly profitable product, see www.ecopinusa.com useful as biodegradable landscape pins and temporary survey markers.
   
• Additional plant features that include: in line slitting and cutting (at no additional cost) which saves a secondary manufacturing process; new glue system and changeover spray bars; faster output (EcoCrop Mat line speed); new software package for full automatic start up, monitoring, shut down and operation.
   
• Positive feedback from EcoCover users all around the world including the UK.
   
• Significant new research validating new product claims with outstanding results with more research in process (university research in India and Norway)
   
• Continuing new product development. See EcoCover product developments in process here.

The value added through continuing research and development is as great as the initial offer, and this is all at no additional cost. There are other incentives for the first plant purchasers in the UK.  EcoCover is doing everything possible to make this a great opportunity.

If an EcoCover plant investment sounds like the right profitable business opportunity for you, please call me today at 001+931 967 2053 to discuss or email ron.castle@ecocover-america.com and ask me to call you.  Include your name and mailing address and I will mail you a sample of the EcoCover product.  An executive overview of the product, an executive plant investment overview, a detailed account of EcoCover's development, research reports and other details are all available by email.  Complete a confidentiality agreement I have working financial models in Excel, a DVD and other information I can send you immediately by email and mail.

Learn more about the EcoCover ground floor opportunity.  Please contact me today.

Cheers,

Ron Castle
EcoCover Business Development

If you are outside of the UK, please inquire.  I will send you the information and get you connected with the EcoCover representative in your area.