Founded in 1991, Riverside Plastics manufactures standard and custom-designed bottles, largely extrusion blowmoulded in PVC and HDPE, for the automotive, cosmetics, healthcare, toiletries and hotel sectors. A spokesman said the business went into administration for a single day on June 6 following “a recent period of difficult trading conditions”, one significant factor having been the loss of a major contract with premium toiletry manufacturer Molton Brown.
Dragon Plastics, which has purchased the business for an undisclosed sum, says it will be owned by an associate company Gwalia Plastics, and will initially trade from its existing premises. However plans are afoot to create a new, integrated plant on the Dragon site, it is anticipated within a year. Dragon plans to “invest substantially” in the newly acquired bottle business, which it believes will “be able to take advantage of complementary trading opportunities presented by its association with the closure manufacturer”. The two companies have several mutual customers. One of the key investment focuses will be new PET bottle blowmoulding equipment.
Graham McKenzie, previously Riverside Plastics' sales and marketing director, will remain with the new company as business development manager, while the directors will be Dragon Plastics md Rod Parker and Dragon chairman Ian Parker.
Rod Parker says: “I believe this will be extremely good news for all Riverside customers. They will be able to rely on a financially secure bottle supplier with enhanced design and development capabilities and up-to-the-minute closure technology from Riverside Packaging's sister company Dragon Plastics. More importantly though, I welcome our new employees, together with business development manager Graham McKenzie, whose jobs we have secured by our new investment.”
Bottle manufacture is not entirely new to Dragon; in the past it produced both bottles and closures, once supplying substantial bottle volumes to Wella, then a prominent inward investor in South Wales.
Graham McKenzie, previously Riverside Plastics' sales and marketing director, will remain with the new company as business development manager Riverside_s_Graham_McKenzie
