Packaging firm wraps up £1.3m expansion

THE Northern Paper Board has revealed plans for £1.3m investment in its site in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

Work is scheduled to begin this month, with a summer completion date.

The new 22,000 sq ft three-bay stock warehouse, costing £600,000, will also house a high-speed folder gluer to further boost manufacturing capabilities and capacity.

The company is the UK’s second largest manufacturer and supplier of solid board boxes for the food processing industry, primarily serving the meat and poultry markets.

Managing director John Curran said: “We completed our existing building in 2010 and are now literally bursting at the seams.The project will allow the business to grow significantly.

“We have already shown solid year-on-year growth, from £5.4 million to £10.5 million annual turnover over the past five years. We can now confidently expect to achieve a further 20% per year growth.

“We currently have the capacity to produce 18 million boxes per year. With our existing staff alone, we have the potential to to increase manufacturing capacity by up to 40%, or 25 to 30 million boxes per year when the new building is fully operational.

“We plan to introduce two shifts and want to see our turnover grow to up to £35 million over the next seven years.”

Established in 1979, Northern Paper Board has invested £4 million in the business in the past decade.

Sales director Paul Curran said: “The new building also gives us far greater flexibility. We have a fast-expanding customer base and will be able to service it more effectively, as well as move into new and emerging markets, particularly niche sectors.

“We do business with some major players, though we will still look after smaller customers, providing a single pallet of printed boxes if needs be.

“In addition, we are now producing corrugated boxes, which we have not done in the past and this will open new opportunities for us. We also currently outsource some of our products and these will be brought in-house.”

The new extension is being built by a local company, Sutcliffe Construction, who have previously done work for Northern Paper Board as part of its continuing expansion and investment programme.

Julian Smith, MP for Skipton and Ripon, visited the company, he said: “Northern Paper Board is a growing business and I was delighted to be able to join them to start a new phase of expansion. I look forward to seeing the business continue to grow in the future.”