Q&A with Freddy Bourdais, Sales Director and Co-Founder

Tell us about Plastic Mouldings Northern Ltd (PMN), and your journey so far?

‘The company was set-up in 2002 by myself, and business partner Mark Rigg, and as a leading industry innovator we’ve grown year on year ever since inception. We are a regionally rooted company operating 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 here 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.’

Tell us about your product range?

‘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 and bespoke dividers, trays and inserts from our Bishop Auckland site.’

Tell us about your customer base?

‘Collaboration and innovation have been at the forefront of our expansive growth trajectory with strong investment in building long-standing working relationships. Over the years our wealth of knowledge and prominent reputation has seen us work with London Underground, McLaren, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Jaguar, JCB and BAE Systems.

We are one of the UKs leading suppliers of competitively priced plastic packaging solutions across a wide range of industries, and over the past 5 years we have worked on a number of exciting projects.  This has resulted in the supply of euro containers and storage boxes used for production of big name TV and film projects including The Grand Tour and Star Wars franchise. Packaging solutions have also been supplied to a number of prestigious automotive companies including Lotus and Mercedes AMG as well as going around the world with the Aston Martin F1 team.’

What has been your biggest business challenge to date, and how did you overcome it?

‘Acquisition of premises has been a huge business challenge. Over the years there had been a substantial shortage of industrial buildings in the North East, in particular in Bishop Auckland.

We have overcome this fortunately with time and now store over 100,000 products on an expansive site spanning 3 acres and 65,000 square feet of indoor storage. Our extensive site which is ever growing ensures a highly efficient and streamlined operation with extensive stockholding capacity.’

How has PMN adapted to the Plastic Packaging Tax?

‘95% of our products hit exemption from Plastic Packaging Tax. There was uncertainty from many around what is included in the Plastic Packaging Tax but we’ve taken steps to make sure customers are aware and that requirements are clear.

We’ve worked hard to ensure that our full range of Euro stacking containers, all contain at least 30% regrind material while still offering a durable and robust solution to all your packaging and storage needs. With large stocks available for next day despatch, we pride ourselves on offering high quality products and top-rated customer satisfaction every step of the way.

Alongside this, we run a buy back scheme offering both a recyclable solution and an additional revenue stream for businesses and their plastic waste. We can offer businesses the chance to make money on any unwanted plastic packaging. Whether it was bought from us or not, we can assess the plastic waste and give customers a quote to buy it direct.

The old plastic pallets will be assessed when they reach us and will either be put back into the market as second hand stock or sent to our recycling partners where they will be turned into plastic granules, ready to be used again in making more plastic pallets.’

What are the short and long-term objectives for the business?

‘We never stand still. We’ve benefited from high growth which saw the doubling of turnover/profit in the last couple of years. In the interim we want to nurture and manage this growth at a steady rate.

Steady growth remains at the forefront of our operations, and this is achieved through our collaborative and innovative capabilities, alongside assessing new market opportunities. Diversification is also another key mechanism of growth here, alongside our core operations we have a number of other arms to the business and we will continue to develop and grow these.

Key investments are paramount to what we do and alongside investment in a new site, machinery and holding stock we’ll be investing in staff, including growing our sales team who are based across the UK.’

And finally, what’s the best piece of business advice you’ve been given?

‘Don’t work for the bank, be self-sufficient. Be ready to lose what you make and replough your profits into the business, that is the ethos we stand by.’

To find out more email sales@pmn-ltd.co.uk