The Dickinson Robinson Group, or DRG, was a

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

British paper, printing and packaging company founded in 1966 as a result of a merger of

John Dickinson Stationery John Dickinson Stationery Limited was a leading English stationery company founded in southwest Hertfordshire. In the 19th century, the company pioneered a number of innovations in papermaking. It became part of Dickinson Robinson Group in 19 ...

Ltd and E. S. & A. Robinson Ltd, creating one of the world's largest stationery and packaging companies. Products with a high public profile included

Sellotape Sellotape () is a British brand of transparent, polypropylene-based, pressure-sensitive tape, and is the leading brand in the United Kingdom. Sellotape is generally used for joining, sealing, attaching and mending. In much the same way that Sc ...

, which it owned from the 1960s to 1980s, and

Basildon Bond John Dickinson Stationery Limited was a leading English stationery company founded in southwest Hertfordshire. In the 19th century, the company pioneered a number of innovations in papermaking. It became part of Dickinson Robinson Group in 19 ...

, which dated from 1911. In 1978, DRG took over the Royal Sovereign group of companies. In 1989,

Roland Franklin Sir Roland Arthur Ellis Franklin (born 5 May 1926) is a British-born Antigua and Barbuda-based merchant banker. Early life Roland Franklin was born in 1926 into an affluent and influential British Jewish family. His father, Ellis Arthur Franklin ...

(Pembridge Associates) acquired DRG's packaging business with a

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loan ...

worth £900 million and the assets of that company were

stripped Stripped may refer to: Music * "Stripped" (song), by Depeche Mode, 1986 * ''Stripped'' (Christina Aguilera album) or the title song, 2002 * ''Stripped'' (Daniel Ash album), 2014 * ''Stripped'' (Macy Gray album), 2016 * ''Stripped'' (Pretty Ma ...

. In 1992 the packaging business was acquired by Bowater-Scott. The John Dickinson stationery business was acquired by

DS Smith DS Smith plc is a British multinational packaging business, headquartered in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The business was founded by two cousins, David Gabriel ...

in 1996 and in turn in 2005 by Hamelin, a French company.

Paper cup production

DRG Cups manufactured and distributed disposable

paper cup A paper cup is a disposable cup made out of paper and often lined or coated with plastic or wax to prevent liquid from leaking out or soaking through the paper. It may be made of recycled paper and is widely used around the world. History Paper ...

s throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, but with the emergence of the

plastic cup A plastic cup is a cup made out of plastic, commonly used as a container to hold beverages. Some are reusable while others are intended for a single use followed by recycling or disposal. Disposable plastic cups are often used for gatherings w ...

, which could be produced more economically and was of higher quality, the company began to decline. This led to the closure of its production plant in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in 1983, as it proved too costly for DRG Cups to maintain a competitive position. The company was eventually bought out by Polarcup (a subsidiary of Finland-based company Huhtamaki), which opened a new paper cup manufacturing plant in

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, in 1984.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Packaging companies of the United Kingdom