Fern contract secures 100 black country jobs

Fern Plastic Products, a specialist in technical injection moulding, has landed four contracts in the last six weeks as it battles back against the global economic downturn. Backed by a commitment to customer service and continual improvement, the Macrome Road-based firm has secured new orders worth over £500,000 to supply added value plastic mouldings for electrical, ventilation and filtration systems. Managing director Iain Graham says Fern had been heading for a record year as it went into August last year but, like many other manufacturers, has suffered declining sales in the last six months and been forced to implement short-time working for all its employees. He went on: “This £500,000 contract haul has come at just the right time for us and should help safeguard the future of our 100 staff, which is great news seeing as we are celebrating a very special year in our history.” Established in 1959 by brothers-in-law Joe Guest and Peter Walker, Fern Plastic Products has become one of the region’s leading plastic injection moulding specialists, supplying high quality mouldings of up to 2.2kg for high quality brands in the building products, electronics, domestic appliance and automotive sectors. It has customers across Europe, in Poland, Turkey, Netherlands and Sweden. “We have a come a long way since we started in Fern Road 50 years ago,” says Iain Graham who, along with production director Gavin Harper and Mark Stallard, led the company MBO in April last year. “A lot has changed in those 50 years, with more than £200,000 invested each year into updating the machines and extending the site, which currently stands at more than 46,000 sq ft.” Fern produces over 45 million components every year, ranging from tiny knobs on army radios and thermostats to wash basins and highly complex filtration systems. “We mainly deal in the high-end of the market with technically demanding and challenging mouldings and our experience gives us an edge over low cost countries,” says Gavin Harper. “Our approach to working with clients at the earliest opportunity adds value to the process and we extend this service by managing the entire supply chain and offering a complete ‘cradle to grave’ solution. This year will be tough; there is no doubt about that. However, the new contracts secured give us every opportunity to ride out the recession and build on annual sales expected to exceed £7 million by 2010.” Pictured (l-r) are Mark Stallard, Iain Graham and Gavin Harper.