Plastek Group Creating New Partnerships at K 2025

Plastek Group has had great success exhibiting at several events in recent months, but its upcoming attendance at the ‘K’ show in Dusseldorf seems set to be the best of all. The fact that K attracts visitors from around the world, and the sheer number of people attending – almost 200,000 at the last show – gives Plastek every expectation of making some valuable new contacts.

“Indeed,” said Plastek UK’s Sales Director Derek Woodruff, “the person you meet for the first time at a sector-specific event like K can turn out to be a project partner you work with for years afterwards. Such partnerships have been at the heart of our efforts to maintain a leading position as our industry rises to the challenges of sustainability and global economic factors.

“We’ll be in Hall 5, stand A28, ready and waiting to tell colleagues from around the world about our award-winning success in sustainable moulding using innovative new materials and additives, and our recent, hugely successful diversification into plastics for the Plumbing and Heating Sector.”

Plastek UK’s Diversification Triumph

The Plastek Group Board and the Plastek UK Senior Team had been actively seeking diversification opportunities for some time, but when the chance came unexpectedly, it took a Herculean effort and some superb teamwork to make it happen.

The Background to the Challenge

In July last year, a long-established and leading producer of water treatment, central heating, and plumbing products and components was shocked by the announcement that a major supplier of their injection-moulded parts had gone into receivership. There had been no advance warning and the potential interruption to supplies of the company’s products to its customers all over Europe, China and the USA was a huge concern.

The company quickly tendered the work, which had been with the incumbent moulder for 15 years. Despite the speed with which the company acted, the requirement was complex and there had been no time to prepare.

Plastek UK looked into the tender, which was substantial, but very different in its requirements from the FMCG and Pharma / Medical sector work on which the company’s reputation has been built, and around whose needs much of its operational systems and technology are based. However, the company felt that this new work would not only introduce it to a new sector and new markets, but also that its expertise in the fast-paced and complex FMCG sector could bring benefits to the new customer.

Plastek was delighted to win the contract on the basis of Plastek’s technical expertise, track record and international footprint. Clearly, the initial objective was not a matter for debate – Plastek needed to get finished goods to the customer in record time, and needed to do so without compromising the quality or timeframes of its existing contracts.

The Size of the Challenge

The implementation of this project had the potential to bring a very problematic degree of upheaval to its Nottinghamshire plant. The project would have been demanding even without the pressing need to get into production without the least delay.

• There were no fewer than 27 different injection moulding tools to onboard, inspect and qualify.
• There were 45 separate SKUs, all completely unfamiliar to the people.
• Inheriting 23 pallets of random stock from the incumbent moulder, all with no indication of the components’ identity or purpose.
• The company needed to recruit, induct and train 24 new staff.

The requirement was not just to mould the 45 parts. The contract involves assembling finished plumbing and heating products from the moulded components, PLUS no less than 150 bought-in additional parts, sourced from around the world, from suppliers with whom Plastek had no relationship – a massive undertaking for the company’s Purchasing, Finance and Administration teams. In addition, the finished goods also needed to be packaged for shelf-ready supply (unlike all its existing FMCG products) and, due to their high value, a bonded area had to be developed within the warehouse, along with the accompanying new operating systems.

Rising to the Challenge

With the generous help of a team from the customer, who worked side by side with Plastek on the shop floor, the technical teams were swiftly able to develop a working knowledge of the components and the finished products, and we began moulding.

Simply making space for such a large new operation was a major difficulty, but, like all the others, with typical Plastek ‘never say die’ attitude, it was achieved within weeks rather than months. The moulding teams and brand assembly lines swung into action and dispatched the first shelf-ready products in October, less than a month after receiving the tools.

To crown the success of our implementation process, the company was immediately subject to a P-PAP audit by a major customer of its new client, completely vindicating the thoroughness of the approach and a great credit to the people who had brought this extremely difficult project to fruition against all the odds.

Read more news from The Plastek Group here.

Plastek Group
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