In 1948, Visy started out in Melbourne as a manufacturer of corrugated cardboard boxes. From these modest beginnings, it has since grown to become one of the world's leading packaging, paper and recycling companies. Now, Visy employs over 5,500 staff and operates in over 120 sites across Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam and trading offices across Asia, Europe and the USA. Visy also has a 'sister' company, Pratt Industries USA, which employs a further 3,500 staff in North America.

Sustainability is at the heart of everything Visy does. As well as providing packaging to some of the world's best known brands, Visy also offers recycling solutions. It's our goal to meet the needs of our customers, while efficiently using and reusing scarce resources.

So what makes a Visy packaging solution special? Well, it depends on who you ask. Our customers come from a wide range of industries, and we create packaging to suit their specific requirements. Visy packaging does everything from preserve and protect a product, to help enhance it.

Beyond the actual manufacturing of products, Visy also runs collection and recycling services across Australia and New Zealand. This helps us to take responsibility for our products after they've fulfilled the purpose for which they were initially made. We work hard to reduce the waste that goes to landfill and minimise the use of water and energy. In Australia, we've been at the forefront of recycling for many years - in FY2012-13 alone, we processed recyclables from more than 3.2 million households. Pretty impressive stuff - especially when you take into account all the businesses, hospitals and schools we also work with.

The actual impact Visy has on the world is huge. In FY2013-14 we produced more than 730,000 tonnes of fibre packaging, 494 million steel food cans, 1.5 billion beverage cans, 823 million beverage cartons, 2.2 billion plastic containers and 1.8 billion plastic preforms. So, no matter who you are or the type of lifestyle you lead, you're almost certain to have come into contact with Visy products.

However the big numbers don't stop there - we're proud to say that in the same year we recovered over 1.6 million tonnes of paper and cardboard, 265,000 tonnes of glass, 90,000 tonnes of plastics and 30,000 tonnes of metals (things like aluminium and steel cans) to be recycled and ultimately given a new life. It's all part of our goal to ensure we leave the smallest environmental footprint possible.