The Leeds site of the UK’s leading decorative print finishers Celloglas is celebrating success this month, less than a year on from when it was hit by £2.1million of damage thanks to the Boxing Day floods, having developed a new arm of the business as part of its recovery.
Creating 3 new jobs for local workers, Celloglas has developed thefolderworks as a sub-brand, offering high-speed folder make-up coupled with a range of innovative Celloglas finishing options. Proving an immediate hit with customers nationwide, the high-speed folder make-up machines make up 10,000 folders per hour and up to 4,000 capacity folders per hour.
A development that will take the business to new audiences as well as servicing existing clients in new areas, this expansion sees them innovate in times of diversity, providing the site with further opportunities to grow revenue. The business has invested in 9 machines since the flood and thefolderworks offer a range of decorative finishing options including lamination, spot or overall varnishes, glow in the dark, fragrances or glitter.
Richard Pinkney, a Director of the business since 2000, said: “It was a scary time for us. When our industry, or other forms of manufacturing, fall victim to a flood we really lose the ability to do our job, – and it’s a long process of getting up and running again. It’s not being dramatic to say that this flood could have been the end of this site, a site we’ve been growing for the last 10 years – but thanks to fantastic support from suppliers, insurers and of course our staff we’ve been able to turn this around. We felt it was the right time to innovate and to bring something new to the business, to give everyone a lift and are delighted with how popular thefolderworks has become. Installing the new folder-gluers has also helped us expand our trade finishing activities to a nationwide customer base, as opposed to restricting ourselves to Yorkshire, Lancashire and more northern areas, which has predominantly been our focus up until now, so we have tapped into a business growth opportunity here too.”
Having been under 1.3m of water, on Boxing Day, on an area not flooded for 75 years, Celloglas activated their Local Emergency Organisation Plan, calling all hands on deck and this saw 95% of staff attending on the 27th December and all staff pitching in on Monday 28th to start the clear up. Good will and support also came in abundance from clients and suppliers, crucial during and post event.
Richard said: “Our strong relationships with our suppliers really paid off, with many of them pulling out all the stops to replace our equipment, with one supplier even leading us a specialist machine to tide us over. This is a great testament to our collaborations within the industry, something we’re really proud of. We are also very grateful for support received from the BPIF, who offered support and assistance including access to funding for flood relief and the Printers Charitable Trust, who supported every member of staff with a £250 payment over the Christmas period”.
He added: “Many people have asked what lessons we have learnt – You can plan for disasters, but until one unfortunately strikes you, you are never ready for one. What this did illustrate though, is what a team we have. The support and good will of the entire staff through this period was outstanding and I was pleased to see our communication channels worked effectively. We were vulnerable when it came to assets and since have carried out a full re-evaluation with our broker and I’d encourage other businesses to do the same as a matter of course. The other area that is a vulnerable one is around loss of earnings, and we are very pleased with the support received from our insurance company who has worked with us over the last few months whilst we build up our production capacities again”.
“Where we were strong was in our market knowledge -we keep up to date with what machines are in the marketplace, what we might invest in next, and so we were ready for moving forward with innovation when it came to replacing machines, because we were aware of the opportunities”.
thefolderworks will provide Celloglas with greater flexibility and greater volume output, already noticeable in production of capacity wallets, ‘open’ wallets and board envelopes as this division fast becomes a strong addition to the business.
