Breaking into new markets

40th year, a time for a reflection Andel Plastics is in it’s 40th year, the beginning of this year saw ownership pass to next generation of the Flowers family Helen Pitt (nee Flowers) and her business partner Graham Robinson. This milestone is a good time for reflection as to the successes of the previous 40 years. The basis of the Andel philosophy has always been the best quality possible, not just the best quality to get by. We’ve also never shied away from small lots or developmental work, no job has ever been more important than another so every customer has been valued in the same way. For 36 years, all our work came from recommendations and we’ve never knowingly lost a customer based on quality or delivery problems. This has given us a lovely advantage of being spread across many industries, we’ve manufactured injection mould tooling and injection mouldings for toys, appliances, the medical industry, plumbing, signaling, the brewery industry, to name a very few. The advantage of this has always been when a lull or recession hits one industry the others have sustained us. Though the recession of 2007 seemed to hit all the industries. The range of manufacturing we have done has also given us a wealth of knowledge and experience in working with a vast range of materials and tool designs. We were one of the first companies to design a multi-stack tool and to develop an overmoulding process, in more recent years we have worked on metal replacement projects which other manufacturers could not provide solutions for. The majority of our work still comes from existing customers and recommendations. However, In recent years we have exhibited at the Southern Manufacturing Show, The Northern Manufacturing Show and recently at the Medtec Innovation Exhibition. Each show so far has brought our presence to a range of new prospective customers. We’ve also converted some of the enquiries received at the shows to tool manufacture an injection moulding. Expanding the business whilst maintaining the culture of quality, personal service and engineering excellence. After 40 years, we were really pleased recently to break into two new markets, one project a recommendation that after two years development work has resulted in a successful test of a project for national rail. The other a result of a converted enquiry from the Southern Manufacturing Show this year. Demonstrating still that there is always room for business development . This exposure into new markets coupled with the Cleanroom development enabling a further progression into the Medical industry has doubled the company turnover within the last three years. Helen and Graham still have further plans for new equipment and a sustained expansion, without ever compromising on the fundamental principles that have sustained Andel’s reputation for the past 40 years. We hare planning a celebration on the 24th September, which is the 40th birthday of Andel Plastics. Watch this space for more information.