Export growth leads to new factory

A £1m production facility is being created by a Yorkshire industrial packaging business as it looks to to capitalise on an increase in exports.

The new 10,000 sq ft factory, close to the Gelderd Business Park in Leeds, will create an initial 12 new jobs for £10m turnover company Marpak Extrusions.

It is to be built by the polythene extrusion and conversion business after gaining backing from Yorkshire Bank’s Leeds Financial Solutions Centre (FSC) as part of its Investing for Growth Initiative.

Family-business Marpak, which was founded in 1980 by managing director, Richard Gibson in the spare bedroom of his Cookridge home, extrudes and converts polythene into sheets and bags for pallet protection in the transportation of a wide range of products including glass, furniture and building materials.

Mr Gibson said: “As a specialist manufacturer we have always traded successfully throughout the UK. We started exporting three years ago to capitalise on the low value of the pound and have built up strong demand in Egypt, France, Denmark, Sweden, Holland,  Germany, and Poland.

“Our new facility, which is due to open in July after extensive refurbishment, is needed because our existing production base in Westland Place, Leeds, is at maximum capacity and  demand for our products throughout Europe and the Middle East is growing. Export sales have risen by 60% in the last 12 months.

“The new factory will enable us to increase our production capacity by 8,000 tonnes a year but this initiative is not just about exporting. Some UK businesses acquire extruded polythene from European importers and we also aim to attack this market which, if successful, will help keep more business within Britain.”

Marpak was sold to a major packaging group in 2000 but was re-launched as an independent family business later. Now the business, in which Richard Gibson’s wife, son and daughter have all worked since it was founded, has 26 staff.

Yorkshire Bank Leeds FSC business partner, Nigel Scarth, who arranged the Marpak funding, said: “The rebalancing of the UK economy will not come from any single dramatic move but by thousands of smaller ones in which first-class operations such as Marpak Extrusions take advantage of growth opportunities and create wealth and jobs as they expand.

We are pleased to be supporting the company’s new development.”