Plastics industry veteran Brian Mann to call time after 50 years
A YORKSHIRE businessman who is one of the grandees of the British plastics sector is to step down after 50 years in the industry.
Brian Mann is to retire as managing director of £82m-turnover North Yorkshire plastics business Rosti McKechnie and step down from his role as honorary treasurer of the British Plastics Federation, where he is the former president.
Mr Mann, 67, who will retire next January from Rosti McKechnie, which has plants in Pickering and Stamford Bridge, has spent his entire career in the plastics industry in Yorkshire.
Following an apprenticeship with a small West Yorkshire engineering company, he later joined Birkby Plastics where he became general manager before moving to McKechnie Plastics as plant manager of the Pickering site in 1985, becoming group managing director in 2001.
He successfully steered the group through its integration with Melrose Industries and, more recently, with Rosti.
A hugely well known and respected figure in the industry, Mr Mann was awarded the BPF’s Gold medal for service both to the federation and to the plastics industry in 2010.
Current BPF president, Philip Watkins, said: “Brian Mann is unique, a great champion of the manufacturing cause and the finest type of British industrialist. His straight talking style and his wisdom, borne of long experience, have been invaluable in helping the BPF confront difficult issues. He correctly forecasted the industrial downturn of 2008 and made sure that the federation itself was well prepared to resist the cold winds blowing around the economy.”
Philip Law, BPF’s public and industrial affairs director, who has worked closely with Brian Mann on industrial issues for many years added: “Brian is the natural leader of the UK’s plastics moulding industry. No one can touch him for his intuitive identification of the key trends, long before they materialise.”
