Made in Bristol

There’s been a corrugated packaging business at our site in Bristol since the mid 1970’s when it relocated its operations from Birmingham. Since then it has had a number of owners including being a sister plant to Boxes and Packaging (Oxford).

Located just minutes from the M4, the southern edges of the Cotswolds and the historic city of Bristol, the 45,000 sq ft site is in the Kingswood area of the city. At least 90% of its 30 employees live within a few miles of the site giving the team a real sense of community spirit which was displayed once again last year, when the site supported the first ever ‘Nursery without toys’ located in the city that made national news due to its unique educational approach.

This sense of community has been evident for decades thought as Douglas, a British motorcycle manufacturer, was the original occupier of the building giving it its name, Douglas House.

The company operated between 1907–1957 and was especially known for its horizontally opposed twin cylinder engine bikes and as manufacturers of speedway machines. The company also built a range of cars between 1913 and 1922.

Most interesting though is that B&P had a member of the Douglas family working here up until around 3 years ago. Ian Douglas looked after the quality systems and internal sales and was very knowledgeable about the history of his family business.

But moving from bikes to boxes.

Bristol is the most southern of the nine Boxes and Packaging sites and has an enviable portfolio of customers across the South West, South Wales and Southern Midlands/Welsh Border covering everything from standard FEFCO boxes to shelf ready packaging and ecommerce packs. They play a particularly important part in the food and drink sector due to their design and manufacturing expertise. The changes in consumer spending habits has seen existing customers upscale demand and new ones seek the expertise of the team in delivering sustainable packaging solutions as an increasing number of people enjoy dining, cooking, baking and drinking in their homes. The Bristol site has recently been audited to the new BRC issue 6 for Packaging, this means it can now manufacture packaging for direct food contact.

Under the guidance of Andy Clarke, Managing Director, who has occupied the position for 16 years the company now has a turnover of £5 million.

It’s commitment to delivering a range of well-designed packaging solutions is supported by a machinery portfolio that includes a two colour Rotary die-cutter, two colour Cuir flatbed printer die cutter, a multi-point folder gluer, two colour casemaker and a range of additional machinery to complete the manufacturing process.

Andy commented; “Like many of the Boxes and Packaging sites we have a very experienced team at Bristol and work hard together to capture and fulfil the corrugated packaging requirements of businesses within around a 50-mile radius of the plant. We continue to see new customers seeking recyclable solutions and existing customers expanding their business operations, especially as the home delivery and ecommerce market looks set to expand further in the coming months.

“The flexibility and appeal of corrugated has always been there, it’s just that more businesses and consumers are understanding the benefits it can bring in terms of robustness, recyclability, efficiencies and sustainability. The future look positive for corrugated packaging and the team at Bristol are looking forward to the next chapter of the journey.”

To make contact with the Bristol team to discuss your packaging solutions please visit-https://www.boxesandpackaging.co.uk/getintouch.html