34 years in 10 questions!

It’s time to meet another of our group production team – the people who keep our factories running smoothly and our production lines efficient.

We’re heading to Leicester this month to meet Vinod Champaneri, Production Supervisor, who has also enjoyed a long career in the industry; 34 years to be precise!

Here’s what he had to say when we chatted about his role.

When did you join the company? – An amazing 34 years ago when it was known as Lavender Boxes, then Mondi and then it became part of the Logson Group and changed its name to Boxes and Packaging (Leicester) in 2005

What’s your career history? – Here! I started work here and have never left, doing lots of different roles whilst I’ve been here. I started working at the end of a die-cutting machine stripping the boxes as they came through the machine. Then I moved to work on a small printer slotter before I became Production Supervisor 11 years ago.

Talk us through a typical day in production at Boxes and Packaging Leicester – Busy and varied but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

To give us an idea of scale, how many boxes pass through the factory on average each day? – Between 30,00 and 35,000 each day.

What would you say are the main elements of your role? – It’s a really varied job and encompasses things like planning the daily and weekly jobs, allocating jobs and people to machines, problem solving and revising production schedules when needed, liaising with our despatch and sales team and, of course, keeping the boss happy!

What do you like about your job? – Every day brings different things to deal with, but I love my job. It’s great making sure we hit all our production deadlines, developing our people, keeping everyone safe, solving problems and supporting all the other functions within the business.

You’ve been in the industry for 34 years. Why would you say packaging is a good career to have? – Everything needs packaging and it’s something that people often don’t really think about and the work it takes to design, print, manufacture and deliver it across the UK. As the sustainability issue continues to gather pace, the corrugated industry is only going to grow further. There are so many different roles to do from specialist design and production, to finance and customer service roles – they’re all equally important to make the business successful.

How has the packaging industry changed during your career? – A lot! But then lots of things have changed in 34 years! As a business we’ve had some really big changes since our current MD was appointed – we’ve got more technology to support our daily tasks, health and safety is of huge importance and is now an intrinsic part of all our roles, and we’ve recently had two new machines which was the first in a long time, so I was very happy!

What do you think the future of the industry looks like? – We’re already seeing greater production capabilities from the latest machines that we’ve had installed, and I would expect that there would be an element of automation that will become evident in the years ahead. One thing is for sure; it’s an industry that is growing and going places, and it’ll be great to see how it develops again in the upcoming years of my career.