Quality Bottles
Scaling a Sustainable Packaging Business with Support from Backing Essex Business
Quality Bottles is a rapidly growing supplier of high-quality amber glass bottles and glass jars designed for the essential oils, holistic health, natural wellness, and cosmetic industries. Operating from their warehouse in Manningtree, Essex, the business has quickly built a reputation for reliability, sustainable packaging options, and exceptional customer care.
Behind this success is founder Rowland, an industry expert who left decades of corporate experience to build a business rooted in quality, ethics, and local impact. But as demand increased at an unexpected speed, the business reached a critical point: it needed finance to scale. With strong potential but limited traditional borrowing options, Rowland turned to local support—and that changed everything.
This is the story of how Backing Essex Business helped connect Quality Bottles to finance that would help support it’s rapid growth.
A Founder with Deep Industry Roots
Rowland’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2018 with Quality Source Ltd, a business selling lithium batteries and electronics for lifestyle and leisure markets. While this gave him vital experience in running a company, his true expertise and passion remained in packaging.
While Quality Source continued in the background, he simultaneously worked for a packaging company. By 2025, when that company’s values no longer aligned with his own, he decided to take over a business called CBD Bottles. He rebranded it to Quality Bottles, a business built on speed of service, quality, and sustainability.
“I felt like there was a growth opportunity within packaging. There are very few regulations compared with other industries, and I knew the market was there.”
Rowland’s decades of experience meant he instinctively understood what a wide range of sectors needed. Customers in industries such as aromatherapy, homoeopathy, natural wellness, candle making, cosmetics, distilleries, food and supplements, as well as specialist areas like glue and ceramic coatings, all require packaging that is eco-friendly, cost-effective, durable, and shipped quickly. Many of these customers are deeply environmentally conscious so Rowland placed sustainability and compostable packaging at the heart of his model.
He also knew these businesses valued personal service and fast turnaround. Being able to call, speak directly to the team, and receive same-day dispatch became part of the company’s identity. This insight enabled Quality Bottles to meet both the ethical and practical needs of a wide, diverse customer base.
Building a Business from the Ground Up
Rowland built Quality Bottles using only his own savings, turning away from private equity routes to remain independent and family-owned.
“I've set this up on my own, using my own funds. I wanted to keep the business effectively family-owned.”
But glass packaging is a stock-heavy business. Jars and bottles are low-cost items that must be purchased at volume, and with a four-month lead time from overseas production to UK delivery, managing cash flow became extremely challenging.
Even though sales were rising rapidly the business needed significant working capital to grow sustainably.
The Challenge: A Strong Business Unable to Unlock Traditional Finance
When Rowland began exploring finance options, he faced an uphill battle. COVID-19 had negatively impacted his previous business, leaving accounts that didn’t reflect the strength or potential of Quality Bottles.
“Because of that, we were a business which on paper had no assets and historical losses. Trying to get loans against that was virtually impossible.”
Traditional lenders were hesitant. Yet without funding, Quality Bottles couldn’t secure the stock needed to keep up with demand—or further expand its warehouse capacity.
A Local Support Network Leading to Transformational Finance
This is when Rowland turned to the local business support ecosystem. He first visited Colbea, who then referred him to Robert Laurie at Backing Essex Business a programme designed to support Essex-based businesses with mentoring, guidance, and access to finance.
Robert spent time understanding the business, its potential, and its challenges. Recognising that Quality Bottles needed a flexible and understanding lender, he connected Rowland with Anthony Harrison at Let’s Do Business Finance (LDBF).
Let’s Do Business Finance is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Responsible Finance provider offering accessible business lending to small and growing companies across the South East and East of England. Unlike many traditional lenders, LDBF looks deeper than just accounts they assess the real story and potential behind a business.
This referral from local support to specialist finance became the turning point in Quality Bottles’ rapid expansion.
Accessing finance from Let’s Do Business Finance under the Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS) from the British Business Bank.
Quality Bottles were able to:
● place multiple container-sized stock orders, ensuring continuity of supply
● replace costly short-term borrowing with stable, affordable finance
● install new four-tier warehouse racking, increasing pallet capacity from 100 to over 260
This investment allowed the business to keep pace with demand. In the last 90 days alone, Quality Bottles fulfilled over 1,000 orders, with 400 in the most recent month.
But perhaps the most meaningful impact has been on the local community.
Quality Bottles now employs two full-time staff and two part-time staff, all from the surrounding area. By investing in Manningtree a region with pockets of economic deprivation Rowland is providing stable employment and opportunities for people who may have struggled to find work locally.
For him, this is central to the company’s purpose:
Quality Bottles isn’t just growing a business—it’s supporting its community.
Looking Ahead
Rowland is now working toward his next milestone:
“I want to be doing a million turnover by May 2025 or on target to do that each month.”
Quality Bottles has evolved from a self-funded startup into a scalable, sustainable business that supports local employment and serves hundreds of small brands across the UK. With its eco-friendly ethos, reliable service, and strengthened financial foundation, the company is set to continue making a positive impact—both commercially and within its community.