Two New UK Manufacturing Bases Supported by MAS
03/02/2015 Manufacturing Advisory Service North West (MAS)
A UK leading supplier of branded POS bar accessories, Willis Publicity with Diamond Printed Products has been trading for over 40 years and as early as 2006, began reshoring its manufacture from China. Yet due to the company's success, their UK suppliers often could not meet their seasonal production demand at short notice.In 2012, with a healthy order book, Willis Publicity took the decision to go it alone and be in total control by venturing into manufacturing themselves. They located a unit in Tonbridge in Kent and invested in the machinery to begin to make their popular range of jugs, trays, ice buckets for their brewery, spirit, wine, cider and soft drinks clients.
It was in 2013 that another Kent company advised them to contact their own MAS advisor, Ian Pateman. The new injection moulding facility at Tonbridge began manufacturing that year and MAS supported them to pass a Tesco buying approval procedure and provided funding for it to meet its ISO 9001 accreditation.
As a result, 17 jobs have been created with plans to invest in new machines in 2015. It is expected that this will increase to 19 jobs with nine being full time. Already the new facility represents £1million of the company's £5million turnover.
Willis Publicity's headquarters are based in Harpenden, Hertfordshire where another 12 office staff are employed. As Richard Ellis, MD explains: "Our business needed the flexibility of a UK base but outsourcing to other manufacturers at home seemed not to be the answer for us as we didn't have control over the flexibility of supply.
"We took the decision to invest in UK production and two years on are very pleased we did. The support that MAS gave us has been invaluable to us in passing stringent quality standards and other requirements. In addition to the Kent base, we are delighted that we have just this year opened another manufacturing site in Staffordshire to produce other POS items such as displays and a print specialist site. MAS supported us with this development too. An additional 8 jobs have been created which brings our total workforce to 30. The MAS advisors are a delight to work with and funding has been really easy to apply for."
Ian Pateman, MAS Advisor said: "It's fantastic to see such high quality products being made in the UK again and that MAS has been able to support the return and continued growth of this thriving business."
For more information, please contact:
Manufacturing Advisory Service
Tel: 0300 456 3565
Email: advice@mymas.org
Web: www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/mas
Print this articleShare article:
Process and Control Today are not responsible for the content of submitted or externally produced articles and images. Click here to email us about any errors or omissions contained within this article.