PlastikCity on Tour: Abbey Polymers

In January, the PlastikCity team visited Abbey Polymers’ headquarters in Stafford to talk about how Abbey Polymers supports plastics manufacturers in the UK with a wide range of specialist engineering polymers, from flexible TPE and TPU through to flame-retardant and recycled engineering grades.

Photographed above, from left to right, Tom Clarke (SEO and Website Manager) and Will Clarke (Sales Director) attended on behalf of PlastikCity, meeting Robin Bailey (Director) and Paul Roe (General Manager) of Abbey Polymers at the company office at Staffordshire Technology Park. As PlastikCity members for a number of years, Abbey Polymers recently worked with sister company PlastikMedia on a website redesign and relaunch.

Following many digital meetings, emails and video calls, this visit was a chance to spend proper time together discussing the business, the materials, and where customers are feeling pressure in 2026.

A specialist supplier built around engineering materials

Founded in 1996, Abbey Polymers has built its name around high-quality specialist thermoplastics and engineering polymers, with particular strength in soft materials such as TPEs (Thermoplastic Elastomers) and TPUs (Thermoplastic Polyurethane), plus flame-retardant compounds. The business is headquartered in Staffordshire and serves customers across the UK, supporting a wide range of plastics manufacturers where material choice has a direct impact on performance, safety, compliance, and durability.

Partner access that solves real specification problems

A big part of Abbey Polymers’ value is access to established European materials partners, backed up by staff who can advise customers on material selection, and assist with a project from material trials through to full production.

For soft polymers, Abbey Polymers supplies TPEs from KRAIBURG TPE under the THERMOLAST® trademark, spanning a wide hardness range for different applications. TPU supply includes the Laripur range from COIM Group in Italy, supporting customers looking for TPU performance where abrasion resistance, flexibility, and chemical resistance are important.

On flame-retardant engineering compounds, Abbey Polymers supplies VAMP TECH, an Italian compounder known for flame-retardant solutions used across electrical and electronics, automotive, public transport and construction.

Beyond that, Abbey Polymers also supports customers with self-lubricated materials and higher performance polymer families including PPS (Polyphenylene Sulfide), PSU (Polysulfones), PEI (Polyetherimide) and PPA (Polyphthalamide), for applications that sit outside mainstream engineering plastics. These thermoplastics typically have exceptional physical properties, such as thermal resistance, strength, stiffness or chemical resistance, making them the perfect choice for demanding, industrial applications.

Sustainability came up in a practical way during the discussion. The focus was not on box ticking exercises, but on what customers can realistically adopt without losing consistency or processing stability. To support its customers sustainability goals, Abbey Polymers offer bio-based options, plus recycled grades containing a percentage of recyclate from post-consumer and post-industrial streams.

More recently, Abbey Polymers has worked with German compounder Geba, offering recycled grades of engineering plastics, as well as Poliservice, an Italian supplier of nylon compounds.

Supporting customers beyond the material

Abbey Polymers positioned itself clearly as a technical materials partner, not an off the shelf distributor. Abbey works closely with its customers on polymer sourcing and consultancy, often being involved earlier in a project, helping customers choose the right material for the part, advising on tooling, and staying close through trials and processing so the result is repeatable and efficient on the shop floor.

“We’re nice people, and between us, we’ve got a lot of knowhow.” said Robin, “We’ve got a lot of experience in helping people select materials, both from the point of view of tooling them and running them, and from the point of view of them performing.”

One of the strengths that came through is the balance of experience in the team. Robin is very technically knowledgeable. His background is rooted in materials science and chemistry, while Paul brings strong injection moulding and processing knowledge, and has had a hand in running moulding shops throughout his entire career. In practice, that combination helps Abbey’s customers receive a full and rounded service with Robin and Paul’s complimentary knowledge covering all aspects of a project.

The team also talked about the way they support a wide range of customers, including those who need more flexibility. Smaller lots and adaptable supply terms make a difference for smaller moulders and product manufacturers who still need specialist materials, but cannot always buy or hold them in large volumes, for financial or capacity reasons.

“I think we’re also very user friendly, in terms of small lots and being flexible. This is very important to our smaller customers. Customers we’ve been working with for years and years,” said Robin.

Paul added, “That’s what our customers say, we’re just so helpful. We’re proactive and quick. Some customers can’t wait for a fortnight for an answer, they need advice or they need a material fast. We’ll always do what we can for every customer, big or small.”

It was clear that both Paul and Robin both pride themselves on their customer service and long-term customer relationships, which reflect positively on Abbey’s knowledge, experience and speed to deliver solutions for its clients.

Interview with Paul Roe and Robin Bailey, Abbey Polymers

Can you sumarise your key products and services?

Robin: Abbey Polymers is built around specialist thermoplastics and engineering polymers. A major area for us is flexible materials, particularly TPE and TPU, including grades suitable for overmoulding and two-shot applications. Alongside that, Abbey Polymers supplies flame-retardant engineering compounds and self-lubricated materials, plus higher performance polymers such as PPS, PSU, PEI and PPA for more demanding environments.

Paul: The service side is equally important, covering polymer sourcing, polymer consultancy, and practical support from selection through to trialling and processing, so customers can get materials running reliably and consistently.

How did your material partnerships come about?

Robin: We’ve been working with Kraiburg since our early days, a major TPE producer in Germany, ever since the early days of two shot moulding. The product was fairly new to the market so when we came on board with Kraiburg it advanced very quickly, and we became experts in flexible materials. We’ve been working with them for over 27 years now.

To complement the TPE offering we wanted to add TPU. Compared to TPEs, the TPU range is lower volume, and in more specialist niches, but we wanted to have a comprehensive range of flexible materials so we always have an answer for the customer. So we’ve been working with COIM for about 15 years now. They’re another global supplier, they have plants not just in Europe but in the States and the Far East.

The flame-retardants business came about almost by accident. Through a mutual contact with Meyer at the time, we were introduced to VAMP TECH. We used to send enquiries for flame retarded materials their way, if we received them, before we officially represented them. One thing led to another and after we had a decent volume of enquiries for their products, we made an official agreement with them. This has grown since, and as well as the flame retardant grades we offer lubricated compounds and ESD (electrostatic dissipative) and semi-conductive compounds too.

We’ve more recently added recycled materials with Geba. It’s a company we dealt with previously, because of the urethane connection, they compounded urethane. Not typical TPU pellets, but specialist grades, static dissipative, carbon fibre filled, coloured, that sort of thing. Geba’s biggest business is reprocessed engineering materials, especially PC-ABS and Polycarbonate. This was of interest to us, since the market for sustainable alternatives is growing in the UK. Sometimes the quality of recycled grades can be questionable, we’ve had some bad experiences over the years, but the quality offered by Geba is unimpeachable. We’ve offered this for around 5 years and it’s incredibly consistent and they sell some interesting grades, and demand is rising all the time. Geba’s quality control is very tight.

Paul: The quality is exceptional. It’s really good. And generally speaking the PC-ABS and Polycarbonates are at the same sort of level of prime material, or a bit below. So offering a greener option at a similar price, that’s a great thing.

Robin: We also engage with an Italian producer of generic nylon compounds called Poliservice, offering Nylon 6, Nylon 66, etc.

What is your target market? Is there much crossover in clients for your flexible materials and your flame-retardant materials?

Paul: There is some crossover, but not so much. People using flexibles aren’t generally the people using the flame retardants. It depends on the product, there are some common customers but most are unique.

Robin: We work with a wide range but primarily targeting the general engineering sector in the UK. We do automotive, with the Kraiburg TPE products, which are specified by Jaguar Land Rover and its suppliers a lot. Next would be the electrical sector, so high voltage suppliers, electrical distribution, handheld devices, any electrical application requires flame retardants. The Kraiburg materials have medical access too so some in the medical sector, for the soft materials.

Paul: More broadly, Abbey Polymers supports a wide mix of UK moulders and manufacturers across automotive, medical, electronics, construction and rail, especially where soft polymers, specialist overmoulding grades, or flame retardancy is central to the part requirement.

What is Abbey Polymers’ unique selling point? What sets you apart from your competitors?

Paul: It’s the spread of materials we offer, its access to our specialist suppliers. We’ve got long standing relationships with leading European manufacturers and this gives our customers a credible list of options to fit their needs, within the niches we operate in.

Robin: I’d also say our customer service. We support all customers, large and small, and have that friendly human-touch. We’re approachable, knowledgeable and responsive, and can be flexible to our customers’ needs.

I think that separates us from some larger competitors. We’re small and we’re agile, it lets us be responsive, prioritise quick turnarounds and prioritise hands-on support and smaller volumes of specialist materials – which may not interest a larger distributor.

I’ve also been working for 30 years in materials, Paul’s been running mould shops all his working life. We’ve been there and done it and we have that experience that can be so valuable to our customers, too.

Paul: It’s true. Robin and I go back over 20 years. I’ve been his customer when working at a few manufacturing companies over the years, and whenever there was a need for TPE, I’d call Robin. The service was always top-notch, so I’m keen to build on that moving forwards, after being colleagues for three years now.

What are the company’s plans for the next 12 months?

Robin: We’re working hard to expand the flame retardant compound business, including new projects and looking at additional markets where flame retardancy is essential.

Paul: I’d also expect us to grow the recycled grades. Demand is rising all the time but quality and consistency from some suppliers can be low. We’re really proud of the quality of our recycled grades so we want to spread the word about these materials and grow that side of the business too.

Are you exhibiting at any trade events this year?

Paul: We’re at Interplas 2026, exhibiting on the PlastikCity Pavilion for three days in June. Events aren’t a huge part of what we do but the right events can be very valuable and give us an opportunity to catch up with existing clients and meet new ones, so we’re looking forward to a successful event in June.

Do you have an official or unofficial company philosophy or mission statement?

Robin: We don’t really, we just try to be helpful, fair and honest.

A typically humble and understated answer from Robin summarises the feeling when chatting with the team at Abbey Polymers. They really seem to understand their market and their customers, and bring decades of technical knowledge to back that up. Both are calm, collected and friendly, and with Paul previously being on the other side, as an Abbey customer, it feels like the team has really built up a customer-centric style that has kept many of its customers loyal for many years.

Thank you to both Paul and Robin for their time, it was fascinating to learn about Abbey Polymers history in more detail, its range of specialist materials and to learn what makes the company tick. Next time you’re in the market for flexible materials, flame-retardant compounds, or anything else offered by the Abbey team, please reach using the details below!

Look out for the next edition of ‘PlastikCity on Tour‘ to learn more about our excellent UK-based partners.

There are now well over 260 active partners represented on the PlastikCity site, many of which offer highly specialised products or services to our sector.

During our everyday course of business, we’ll be making a point of visiting as many of these partners as we can and using the time to better understand what they offer the market. We’ll then showcase them through this ongoing series of articles. Maybe you can benefit from their services!

Read more news from Abbey Polymers here.

Abbey Polymers
01785 241343
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