Member Article

North Tyneside’s Chemson to increase product range with £1m investment

North Tyneside-based Chemson, a specialist in PVC stabilizers, ihas invested £1m in several new initiatives which will significantly increase its product range and improve customer response times.

Investing in state-of-the-art machinery and technology systems to speed up the UK plant’s internal production and despatch processes, Chemson has also invested considerably in training and development for the workforce to increase its technical expertise.

The Wallsend-plant is also on target to phase out lead production by the end of 2015 in line with Vinyl Plus, the voluntary commitment of the European PVC industry.

Amongst the investments is a new packing machine, a new fleet of forklift trucks and additional warehouse storage capability. In addition to several new highly-skilled appointments, Chemson has also been working with a management consultancy and training provider on training programmes to upskill staff.

These improvements will give Chemson the capability and flexibility to vastly increase its range of bespoke PVC stabilizer recipes and products for its global client-base, as well as providing considerably faster customer response and turnaround rates.

Paul Knowles, Managing director of Chemson’s UK manufacturing facility, said: “After a period of undeniable turbulence for the UK plant, we are now making huge strides in turning around our position to create an agile, forward-thinking, customer-focussed business - well-equipped to meet the polymer and plastic industry’s future needs.

“Under the new committed-ownership of Oyak, we now have a long-term strategy for growth in place and this significant investment will help us to further build our client base by offering a vastly increased product range and considerably faster response times.

“This level of investment also demonstrates a high degree of confidence in the UK site and recognises its global importance. We are looking forward to building on this and working with our clients on more new and innovative ways to improve our product and service offering as we enter a new phase in our evolution.”