Plastic Mouldings Northern Ltd (PMN) is an industry leader that ‘never stands still’ with innovation and collaboration at the heart of their operations. We caught up with Chris Parker, Southern Sales Manager at Plastic Mouldings Northern Ltd.
Tell us about PMN and the product range?
PMN operate on a national and international scale and have built up a prominent reputation across the manufacturing sector globally with customers and industry peers.
The main output at PMN is the production of vacuum formed plastic parts, which sees us supply high quality and often very intricate moulded parts to an array of industries. As vacuum forming specialists, we have over 150 years combined experience in the field and the expertise within the company in this area continues to drive the company forward.
Alongside our vacuum forming operation we are one of the UKs leading suppliers of plastic packaging solutions, including Euro containers, across a wide range of industries. Storing over 100,000 products on an expansive site spanning 3 acres and 65,000 square feet of indoor storage, with efficiency and experience coming as standard. Alongside the Euro containers we are also a leading supplier of folding pallet boxes, solid big box containers and plastic pallets as well as offering a range of accessories, including lids, trolleys, bespoke dividers, trays and inserts from our Bishop Auckland site in the North East.
Tell us about your journey so far?
Packaging is in my blood! From an early age and in the school holidays I would help to make boxes in the factory owned by my father, Crowhurst Boxes. I couldn’t keep away, returning post university for seven years, rising to the position of Sales Manager.
Since then, I’ve worked across the packaging industry including roles at National Packaging, SSI Schaefer and Logtek. I’ve been with PMN a while now, joining the team in 2010 as their Southern Sales Manager, developing accounts in the South, to bolster the growing company’s national presence.
What does your role involve?
Solving tangible material handling & supply chain issues for our customers.
Working with customers and our partner factories to find the best solutions and developing a range of options based on their needs to ensure operational efficiency for each application; for this knowledge of products & the industry is vital. Scenarios and timescales can vary immensely from bespoke to relatively simple solutions, we’ll source it or if it’s bespoke, we’ll project manage the design, prototyping and manufacture to ensure we deliver the correct solution for each customer. We are rarely beaten! Come and test us…
What are the key driving attributions to success at PMN?
Relationship management is paramount; be that internally with the team, with customers or with suppliers, we all have our own goals and objectives. Each project, no matter what the size, must be economically viable. All business relationships are built on trust; collaboration up and down the supply chain is the key to achieving the best outcome for all parties involved.
Investment in building long-standing working relationships is a key driver at PMN and has led to a prominent reputation in the industry; this has seen us work with London Underground, Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, JCB and BAE Systems.
An often-overlooked benefit is that we are not beholden to any one manufacturer, we scour the world to get results for customers, this really is a strong USP as a solution provider.
With all the projects you’ve worked on, is there a standout solution you found?
One project, involving a key player in the Seafood Industry, led to us sourcing a historic item which was used for a completely different market, creating the ideal solution. The innovative outcome revolutionised their packaging processes and saw the eradication of polystyrene from the supply chain, a real game changer.
What are the biggest business challenge in the industry?
Across all industries budgets are tight, this is an ongoing issue, we look to find the best deals for customers. One solution is the enhancement of our fleet of reconditioned packaging solutions. Not only is the packaging, that would have ended up in landfill, being given a new lease of life, customers can purchase good quality re-conditioned packaging at a cost-effective price. Our reconditioned packaging is also exempt from (PPT) Plastic Packaging Tax, another revenue and environmental tick for customers.
Secondly, there is no denying that Brexit has been a nuisance, even though we try to UK source as much as possible, the solution doesn’t always exist here, the increase in paperwork and added costs don’t add any value.
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