Member Article

Jobs Boost to Meet e-commerce Growth

An East Anglian packaging firm is on a major recruitment drive, expanding its team by over 50 per cent in the past three years to meet continued (e-commerce) growth.

Southgate Global which has its head office at Sterling House in Kings Lynn, has a broad customer base with 600 distributors across the UK and Europe, as well as a portfolio of large e-commerce clients and those specialising in warehousing and logistics.

Established over 50 years ago the firm provides packaging equipment and consumables many of which are sustainable.

Three years ago, the company had a team of 48, which has grown this month to 72. Southgate has just employed another 11 members of staff and is still recruiting for a further seven roles in IT, customer services and logistics, most of which are new jobs.

With the e-commerce boom showing no signs of slowing down, now accounting for more than one quarter of all retail sales in the UK[1] Southgate has seen its business in the sector grow substantially. As well the company adapted and responded quickly to the Covid-19 pandemic, launching new safety and hygiene products to enable its customers to carry on working.

Southgate also played its part in the plan for testing all NHS staff for Covid-19 last year. As the sole packing contractor Southgate packed and despatched over 5 million test kits, as well as designing the self-seal bag for the testing kits so that once complete the testing bag can be resealed to minimise handling.

At the height of the pandemic Southgate not only supplied the majority of the Covid-19 self-seal kit bags they are also supply customers with a wide range of PPE and Covid-secure products ranging from; Infrared Thermometers to Sanitisation Fogging Units.

Stephen Turner, HR Manager. comments: “After a tough year for everyone we have continued to be a pioneer in our sector and we’re still looking for talented recruits to join the expanding team.

“When Covid-19 struck we had to adapt quickly and innovatively which paid off. Our team worked hard to create solutions to support both our customers and the supply chain. With the continued boom in e-commerce resulting in an increase in demand for packaging products, specifically those which are sustainable, we have been hard at work developing new innovations which meets this growing need this has paid off and allowed us to expand across the whole business.”

Southgate is committed to developing alternative products to significantly reduce packaging waste and plastic content. The company continues to expand its sustainable range whilst reducing plastic content, finding more sustainable alternatives whilst maintaining quality. Its focus on sustainability feeds into Southgate’s wider ambition to develop and promote the idea of a circular economy – inspiring businesses to embrace the global solution to eliminating waste. Southgate recently announced it has achieved a Silver EcoVadis rating, showcasing its focus on driving sustainability within its business and the wider industry. The rating recognises Southgate’s continued focus on cultivating innovative, eco-friendly packaging alternatives.

This year the company also featured for the first time in The Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200. The listing ranks Britain’s mid-market private companies with the fastest growing international sales, measured over the last two years.

The pioneering packaging supplier is prioritising product innovation alongside investing in its people and its brand to continue to drive business growth.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lydia Skerritt .