Profile: Blooming packaging firm Spectra outgrows its roots

The Suffolk village of Halesworth on a balmy summer’s day is the kind of place that inspires great authors to write about England’s green and pleasant land. It is not the kind of place that you would readily associate with a tale about plastics extrusion and thermoforming. And yet here, among the trees and rolling fields, Spectra Packaging is beginning to write its own success story.

Just two years after setting out on its packaging adventure, Spectra expects to outgrow its current buildings and, as such, is investing in a new 5,000m² production facility a quarter of a mile down the road. Staying in the village is very important to the firm in order to retain its 24 staff.

“The new plant is far enough out of town not to upset the local authorities,” says managing director Joe Maynard, who has secured planning permission for the site. He hopes that construction will begin by April of next year and should be completed within 18 months. The current investment in the new facility is in the region of £4-5m, to develop the site and the initial infrastructure required to operate it.

Silver lining

Such forward planning might seem at odds with the current economic climate, but the firm is nothing if not ambitious. Indeed, while the recession is making it difficult for all businesses, especially companies such as Spectra that are starting out, the firm has been able to make the most of packaging buyers reassessing contracts. “People have felt the need to look around for new products, which has helped us. The recession, and our reputation as a masterbatch supplier, has perhaps brought them to us sooner. Business is growing quite nicely,” says Maynard.

Growth at Spectra is not just a long-term policy and the firm continues to invest in its production lines. This month, two new injection-stretch blow-moulding machines for manufacturing containers will be delivered to the plant, adding to one bought earlier in the year. Commercial director Gavin Chenery suggests it is difficult for the firm to say how well it is performing this year simply because it has nothing to compare it to. But demand for its products is certainly growing as the firm gets its name out. “We’re expanding rapidly and investing in new equipment to keep up with the growing demand,” he says.

Spectra Packaging came into being in 1997, a decade after Maynard founded Spectra Masterbatches in Halesworth. It marked Maynard’s return to the plastics industry, after a break to get married and make lawnmowers. He says that, despite the Spectra name, buyers were initially wary of taking a risk on the new company. “It is a market where we were well represented through our masterbatches division, but were an unknown quantity in terms of our packaging,” he says.

The firm began producing extrusion blow-moulded bottles 12 months ago and has already secured a number of important brands as clients, such as Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare.

Word gets around

Spectra’s HDPE bottle for Liz Earle’s Orange Flower Hand Wash and Hand Repair products has a pump that has to be in a different position when open and closed and is printed with a four-colour design. The firm says that being able to produce plastic containers to Liz Earle’s high standards has helped get its name into the marketplace. “Initially, getting work was a case of us going out to companies. But, as we have started to gain a good reputation, people are starting to come to us,” says sales manager Jonathan Powell.

Focusing on a quality product and good customer service is a trait that has been brought over from the masterbatches division and has led the firm to establish an extensive set of tooling and design capabilities. The firm operates 24 hours a day, five days a week and produces a wide range of bottles, caps and closures from polypropylene (PP), PET and PVC. It also offers silk-screen printing with hot-foil stamping and can source other decoration techniques.

“We have 20 standard items, and we also offer our customers the possibility to make moulds to order. Our run sizes range from 5,000 to 500,000 units,” says Maynard.

Like the rest of the packaging industry, Spectra has responded to demand for environmentally friendly products. Maynard says the firm has looked at bioplastics, but that getting sufficient supply at the right price was an issue. It currently offers PE and PET containers that include recycled content. They are ideal for toiletry products, where much of the firm’s current business lies. “It’s a consumer-driven market. Products sell based on the way they look,” he says.

Spectra’s village location is perhaps at the heart of its green agenda. Indeed, as it redevelops the fields for the new plant, the firm is determined to minimise its impact on the landscape. It will plant trees and do as much as it can to block the view of the new plant from the road. The goal is clearly to ensure that, while the business goes from strength to strength, the Suffolk countryside remains pleasant and green.

1997 Spectra Masterbatches founded

July 2007 Decision to move into packaging manufacturing

January 2008 Packaging production begins

August 2008 Spectra Packaging starts delivering orders

April 2010 Construction due to start on new plant

September 2011 New plant to go into production

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