The demise in recent years of several factories in the region run by major brown and white goods manufacturers has seen EPS and EPP protective packaging moulder Styropack UK announce the planned closure, on March 30, of its Abedare, South Wales factory.
In the past 2-3 years manufacturers including Sony TV, LG and Panasonic TV have closed plants supplied with foam packaging by the Aberdare plant, while another big customer, Orion Electric, has substantially reduced its production volumes.
Styropack UK says its five other plants, “strategically located” around the UK (In Grimsby, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Ford in Sussex and Blackburn) will provide a continuation of service to customers supplied by Aberdare, “where viable”. Md Gavin Birnie says: “I can personally assure our customers we will do everything possible to maintain supply in the short-term and, where possible, in the future too. We very much regret the impact this decision will have on the site's 12 employees. We are currently discussing the situation with them and have begun a consultation process to examine all our options.”
Birnie is at pains to stress that the closure does not reflect the performance of Styropack nationally. Last year, he points out, the company achieved £1.8m in new business wins and is continuing its investment programme with new machines for its Glasgow site and a new prototyping system for its Blackburn design centre.
