EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 07+08/22 www.petpla.net 10 Innovation, recycling, recyclabilityby Ruari McCallion Paccor (Mansfield) UK Ltd was founded as Closures Ltd, just over 20 years ago. In 2018, it was acquired by Lindsay Goldberg Vogel, the European arm of USA investment company Lindsay Goldberg. The Mansfield plant’s speciality is caps, focused very much on the dairy industry. Milk and dairy is highly commoditised so there is always a challenge to profitability. Paccor has risen to the challenge of commoditisation in the dairy industry by investing in automation and in producing a cap that is the leader in the UK dairy industry. Paccor is also investing in recyclability and environmental sustainability, of products and processes. Ruari McCallion, PETplanet Insider’s Editor-at-Large, visited Paccor (Mansfield) UK Ltd and spoke to Managing Director Steve Naylor and Nick Hill, plant manager. Interview with Paccor (Mansfield) UK Ltd, March 2022 We met: Mr Steve Naylor, Managing Director Mr Nick Hill, Plant Manager Paccor has two sites in the UK. One in Mansfield, near Nottingham, in England’s East Midlands and another further north, in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, which is one of only two Centres for Development and Innovation across the whole organisation. The other is in Germany, at Paccor Packaging GmbH, in Düsseldorf. Paccor has manufacturing and/or sales presence in 18 countries across the world, including North America and SE Asia. Paccor (Mansfield) UK Ltd traces its history back 20 years. It was founded by Peter Acres and Anthony Jurkiw as Closures Ltd, with a 10-year entrepreneurial view to build up the company and then sell it on to others with the resources to take it further. After a period in another private equity company’s ownership, the company in the UK and across the world is now owned by Lindsay Goldberg Vogel, the European arm of USA investment company Lindsay Goldberg. The Mansfield plant is totally dedicated to manufacturing caps and it is focused very much on the dairy industry, which is highly commoditised and thus presents constant challenges to profitability. While other competitors have opted to shift their focuses elsewhere, Paccor is meeting the commercial challenge by investing in automation and constantly striving to drive out waste. Its strategy has led to it becoming the leading supplier of caps to the dairy industry, including suppliers of specialist products such as Cravendale, a filtered milk with a long shelf life. “Our product is a bit more specialist,” said Steve Naylor, Head of Sales UK and Ireland. His responsibility includes both Paccor (Mansfield) UK Ltd and Paccor UK Ltd, the Chesterle-Street facility. “There are only two players producing these caps so it is a very restricted supply chain. The previous owners used to say that, if Paccor stopped supplying for a week, it would make the national news. There aren’t many businesses in the country that would do that.” The reason is that dairies would still keep producing, as would the cows and the bottle manufacturers would be able to keep sending their products to the dairies, too, but if the supply of high-performing caps, essential for the freshness and integrity of a basic food like milk, was unavailable, the supply and sale of it to supermarkets would have to stop. “There’s been a lot of discussion about milk in the press, as you know. There always is because the farmers are always complaining that bottled water is more expensive than milk, that the bottled water suppliers get paid more and people still buy it,” Steve said. “There’s this commodity aspect, where the retailers treat it as a commodity.” The Cravendale filtered milk product, which is made by Arla, is aimed at a more premium market. The bottle is slightly thicker, Tour Sponsors: Part of the production floor of Paccor’s Mansfield plant, which specialises in the production of closures made of recycled PE
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