LATEST BLOGS

50 years on from its foundation and in the 10th year of its re-naming (via Appella) as Avenues For Justice, the charity now covers all 5 NYC boroughs.

Congratulations to Sir Richard Branson on the - just over - 20th anniversary of the not-so-well-known but high achieving Gibbs Aquada, named by Appella and driven by Sir Richard across the Channel in record time on June 14th 2024. Sir Richard beat the previous record by over four hours! 

Many congrats to Tim Leech CEO of Appella’s oldest named and thriving charity Wavelength, formerly Wireless 4 the Bedridden, itself over 80 years old when the decision in 2010 was made to re-brand. What great longevity all round!

Happy New Year from the Appella team! 🎉🌟 We're looking forward to another busy year working with lots of fantastic brands and wish you all success on your journey. If you'd like to find out how we can help with your next requirement, get in touch .

We are very pleased this year to be able to mark the 20 th anniversaries of two brand names created by Appella, Essentra plc and the Gibbs Aquada car. Essentra’s line of corporate ancestry goes all the way back to the Bunzl family and Pozsony in the Habsburg Empire, now Slovakia, where in 1854 Moritz Bunzl registered his haberdashery business. In 1883 his three sons changed the name to Bunzl & Biach AG and moved to Vienna, closer to the main European markets of the time. Here they bought a paper mill and manufactured paper, cigarette filters and cellulose wadding. Following Hitler’s Anschluss in 1938, by which Nazi Germany annexed Austria, the family left the country in order to avoid their company and assets being seized or destroyed as happened to all Jewish businesses. Some of the family moved to Switzerland, some to the United States and a small number moved to the UK to develop operations there. The 1950’s saw international expansion and a separate company, American Filtrona, incorporated in the USA in 1954 as a filter technology specialist, especially in cigarette filters. Filtrona demerged from Bunzl in 2005 and went on to buy Duraco an adhesives coated products business in 2007. They continued to diversify into a multi-sector, component parts and elements manufacturing and supply business, mainly through acquisition. They re-branded in 2013 with the aim of de-coupling from their historic association with the tobacco industry, Essentra being chosen in order, as their then CEO Colin Day declared, “to capture what each of Filtrona’s businesses manufacture and supply: small but essential key components that play critical roles for our customers”. We wish Essentra a very happy 20 th birthday. Please stay in touch for the Aquada blog to follow shortly.