Birmingham-based Barkley Plastics Ltd (
www.barkley.co.uk) — a supplier of plastic injection moulding, assembly and tool-making services — is celebrating 55 years of business by increasing its capacity to handle new orders that it has won from the automotive sector.
The latest installation of £250,000 in new presses and robots takes the company’s capital machinery expenditure to over £800,000 in the last five years; it also highlights the firm’s desire to move into more-cosmetic and more-technical products that require industry-leading processing accuracy.
Mark Harwood, Barkley Plastics’ managing director, said: “We have always tried to stay one step ahead of what the customer wants, and this is reflected in the latest process, which gives us additional capacity and production control to take on more automotive work.
"There will also be news of a ground-breaking development in injection moulding before the end of the year.
“The £250,000 investment will immediately be put to use on a new project that will see us manufacture a selection of small but high-volume JLR parts.
“There’s no getting away from the fact that the capital spend is vital, but our people continue to be crucial to our on-going success.
"We have got more than 10 people who have been with us for 40 years, and David Challinor — the son of one of the founding members — only retired at the end of the year, having given us 48 years of service.”
Barkley Plastics’ technical director, Pete Tedd, said: “The increasing range of new electric and hybrid vehicles presents some exciting opportunities that suit our expertise, while work is being undertaken to increase our shares of the construction, electronics, medical, and retail sectors.
"We are predominantly a sub-contractor, but we have recently been looking to develop our own range of products — such as our Plasfloor floor tiles and an anti-static electrostatic-discharge option.”