PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2020

TOP TALK 15 PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 Alan: Our USA parent company are seeing pretty much the same results as we are in the United Kingdom with record sales, healthy workforce and working hard to meet customer demands. PETplanet: Of course, no-one knows how businesses will emerge from this crisis. In Europe some countries have started to ease the lockdown and are now talking about opening the borders. All very positive. In your view, how will your business and the economy fare in the last quarter of 2020? Alan: To answer that question I will need a Chrystal ball, this year is proving to be better than I anticipated and we have orders to fulfil through September but what the end of the year is going to bring is a guess with concerns about Covid-19 and also we have the not talked about Brexit. All we can do at R&D/Leverage is keep our workforce healthy and continue offering the World beating complete solution to the Injection Stretch Blow Moulding (ISBM) industry, thankfully in prior years we invested heavily in state of the art manufacturing equipment, latest technology inspec- tion equipment and our 10 ISBM machines so we have everything in place to continue expanding through 2020 and beyond. Last year we secured our third facility at our Notting- hamshire site this gave us an extra 25% manufactur- ing and office space. PETplanet: In your view, what lessons will be learned for the economy and financial planning as a result of the pandemic? What plans are R&D Lev- erage developing for the post-crisis future? Alan: One topic that needs to be highlighted is that the dreaded plastic everyone wanted to talk about is now being recognised as a life saver in the fight against Covi-19. Plastic is not the problem, its people and gov- ernments who fail to recycle are the problem. Life is very different at the moment and this is probably the new normal where customers are not visit- ing R&D/Leverage, we are not visit- ing our global customers and we are relying more and more on technology to interface with not only our custom- ers but also our families. I am not too sure life will go back to as it was before so trade fairs may become a thing of the past only time will tell. PETplanet: Thank you very much Alan! www.rdleverage.com