Member Article

Omega Plastics Group appoints new Group Managing Director

As the business enters an exciting chapter at its new flagship headquarters in Team Valley, a new Group Managing Director has been appointed at Omega Plastics Group.

Craig Swinhoe has taken over the reins of the plastics injection moulding and tooling group from Dave Crone, who has held the position since 2006.

With a broad range of experience leading businesses and developing and executing group strategy, most recently as Group Managing Director of Quantum Pharma, Craig was identified as the best fit for the role.

Craig’s appointment is part of a strategic succession plan for Dave Crone and his fellow shareholder and former chair, Chris Thompson. Dave Crone will move into the role of Executive Chair, where he will work with and provide support to Craig and transition to a part-time role. As executive chair Dave will also continue to utilise his significant engineering experience to provide technical and operational support to the Group’s key customers operating across the automotive, FMCG, healthcare and building products sectors, as well as seeking new opportunities and or technologies. Chris Thompson will continue to support the Group in a non-executive role.

“This is the start of an exciting new phase for the Omega Plastics Group,” said Executive Chair, Dave Crone.

“Craig’s appointment is part of a planned succession plan for myself and Chris. We have excellent technical engineering skills throughout the business but Craig will bring a different and complimentary strategic and commercial skillset and approach to build upon our business strategy and help drive OPG forward.”

With over 15 years’ experience as a corporate lawyer/partner, at two of the North East’s most prestigious law firms, most recently as a Partner at Muckle LLP, Craig made the move into company management in 2015.

“Chris and I have known and worked with Craig for over 15 years as an adviser and having worked alongside the OPG team on a consultancy basis since December, Craig already has a good feel for the heartbeat, key drivers, markets and people within the business. His vast experience including leading another multi-site manufacturing business and his background and skillset will bring an exciting new dynamic to the Group,” Dave added.

Craig, who is married with two daughters, is now in-post and is already using his knowledge and experience to start shaping the business’ core growth strategy. “I’m delighted to have been appointed to this role during an exciting period at Omega Plastics Group,” Craig commented.

“The move to Team Valley earlier this year and the opportunities that this has afforded the Group already in the form of new contract wins has been absolutely fantastic. It is my job now to harness this success and work with the fantastically talented teams at Omega Plastics and Signal Plastics to build on the momentum.

“Dave, Chris and the team have done a great job over the past 13 years to grow the business from an SME with six employees to where it is today as a multi-million-pound turnover North East Company of the Year winner, with over 110 employees at two enviable manufacturing facilities. I look forward to working together with Dave, Chris and rest of the team to help OPG reach new heights.”

The Omega Plastics Group provides a range of low to high volume rapid tooling and specialist multi-use plastic injection moulding services. The Group has enjoyed continued growth since its acquisition of high-volume plastic injection moulding specialist, Signal Plastics, in 2015.

In December 2016, the group relocated Signal Plastics to a larger 42,700 sq ft factory unit in Bentall Business Park, Washington and invested over £1 million in new injection moulding presses and overhead robotic equipment. Earlier this year, the group merged its two Omega Plastics sites in Blyth and Hartlepool into a new 45,000 sq ft facility on the Team Valley Trading Estate providing more than double the capacity of the two sites combined and new Group headquarters.

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