In the 1950s, the business developed Rippatape, the first tear tape based on cotton fibres, used for easy opening of boxes and sacks.

Payne went on to develop self-adhesive tear tapes, which became popular for cigarette packaging, and was acquired by Bunzl in 1996 as a consequence of the group's growing success in filter production.

[7] In early 2013, Filtrona plc completed the acquisition of Contego Healthcare, which was incorporated into the Coated & Security Products Division of the company.

[14] Essentra Packaging is headquartered in Giltbrook, Nottingham and has additional manufacturing facilities in Banbury, Cardiff, Liverpool, Bradford, Newmarket, Fareham, Waterford, Sarreguemines, Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Cervia, Podenzano, Cork, Richmond, São Paulo, Bangalore and Surabaya, along with offices in Singapore and China from which Essentra Packaging provides its products to customers in over 100 countries.

Additionally, these products can also carry brand protection solutions, such as tamper evidence or a range of overt and covert authentication technologies[15] such as holography, colour shift inks and taggants.