Our Mission
"A passion to be a commercial fisherman has been a driver for most of my life. In 2006 I achieved that life long ambition when I established TomKat Line Fish with my wife Kath.
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Our aim is to fish sustainably, reduce wastage and maintain the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef. To achieve this, we needed an environmentally responsible, thermally equivalent alternative to Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) fish boxes to transport our premium product direct to market. When we couldn't find an appropriate alternative, we invented our own.
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We have formulated a material spec based around our design, and developed the processes to make it. This has all been achieved with a very small budget.
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I believe that it is not about the titles you hold, but what you believe you can achieve. The KoolPak and the team working behind the scenes are a reflection of that."
Tom Long
Founder, CEO and KoolPak product developer
Half a billion polystyrene fish boxes are used globally by the seafood industry every year - that's enough to circumnavigate our planet 6 and a half times!
90% of these mostly single use containers make their way into landfill, the ocean and the food chain! The environmental, economic and health impacts of polystyrene are immense and its continued use is no longer environmentally responsible or socially acceptable.
As fishers, our ethos is sustainably fishing for the future. Like all of the wild catch seafood industry, our business relies upon the health and resilience of the oceans. Reducing the use of polystyrene within the industry demonstrates our pledge to undertake environmental best practice. This, in turn, improves our social license. Seeking to fulfil our vision to be a leading supplier of premium quality, wild caught reef fish, we were not content transporting our product in environmentally unsustainable polystyrene fish boxes.
Watch Koolpak Presentation
Benefits of Koolpak
Protects Product
Sealed edges improve insulation and eliminate bacterial contamination
Durable: no risk of small fragments breaking off
Preserves the Environment
100% recyclable: cradle to cradle principles of sustainability
Additional Benefits
Independently replaceable components
No single use plastic liner bag required with airfreight consignments
Rotational reuse: with each use the system becomes more cost effective
Temperature logging with your mobile phone
KoolPak App traces each KoolPak through its entire life cycle
Light weight and strong
Superior thermal performance
Anti-microbial, food grade liner
Chemically neutral
Flat packable for efficient transportation and storage: over 120 containers per pallet
No noise or chemical smell
Airline approval with the KoolPak 570 Silver 1 having a gross mass of 25kg - limited to 23kg on Qantas for single person lifting (OHS).
Temperature (C)
Time (Minutes)
The orange and blue lines represent the Mean Internal Box Temperature (solid coloured curves) and 95% confidence intervals (corresponding dashed coloured curves) for both box types in the experiment carried out in the sun.
The KoolPak 570 silver box had a significantly lower internal temperature than the Polystyrene box throughout the duration of the experiment.
The horizontal solid black line shows the average ambient temperature across the five environmental conditions of the experiment; the dotted lines around it (minimum and maximum temperatures registered across the five runs) show the range of ambient temperatures under which the boxes were tested.
How does it Work
The KoolPak actually has some kooltech! It is a multi layer product with a unique design that facilitates great thermal performance.
More than just a ‘box in a box’, the relationship between the 3 separate components plays an important role not only thermally, but in delivering many other desirable benefits.
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When you build traceability and temperature sensing into a superior thermal container, you have created a market leading product. Beyond the benefits to users of our track and trace technology, it allows us ‘TomKat Global Solutions’ to assign every KoolPak bought to a purchaser. With this technology we are providing users the opportunity to scan off their KoolPaks post use at a recycling centre, validating their own environmental credentials.
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With sustainability and recycling fundamental to the KoolPak system, we have ensured no material is co-mingled which is a major issue with many alternative products significantly limiting any post use recycling.
The material spec for the KoolPak has developed to be fully recyclable, delivering thermal performance in a form that meets market need and expectations such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 14.1
Thermal Performance
Traceabillity (GPS Location)
Temp. Sensing (NFC Tags)
Clean Recyclability
Supply Chain Transaprency
Multiple Time Use