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When fast food giant McDonalds realised it didn’t
have any sachets of ketchup just days before the grand
opening of its Moscow restaurant, a St Helens flexible
packaging company stepped in to help.
In just two days, Moore and Buckle created and printed
the packaging for thousands of ketchup sachets and managing
director Bruce Pritchard even jumped in his car and
drove the packaging to Hemel Hempstead where they continued
their
journey to Russia in time for the flagship launch
.
In fact the company has gained such a reputation for
efficiency that Bruce regularly receives calls at 10am
on Friday morning from companies shouting ‘Help!’
“These are often major blue-chip organisations
who have been let down by other suppliers,” explained
Bruce.
“There is an incredible buzz in the factory as
we are a real team here and I can rely on everyone pulling
together to help.”
Thanks to this reputation, Moore and Buckle, which celebrates
its 25th anniversary this year, has some major league
clients including McDonalds, Findus, Walls, Marks and
Spencer and Glenmorangie Whisky. As well as flexible
packaging, the company also provides a full technical
design service and
is currently helping Lee Cooper with a World Cup promotion.
Mike Moore and Barry Buckle set up the company in 1981
after they were made redundant from national packaging
company Metal Box, which shed hundreds of jobs from
its Merseyside plant.
The pair cast around the North West looking for a location
and were impressed by St Helens and a project being
run by Pilkingtons to encourage new businesses to set
up in the area. They also received lots of help and
support from St Helens
Chamber and rented a small unit in Moorfoot Road with
machinery bought from Metal Box.
Bruce also worked for Metal Box and joined Mike and
Barry in 1985.
“Metal Box was incredibly helpful in selling off
its machinery to us cheaply, they were very supportive
Packaging expertise that’s fast and flexible of
what we were doing,” explained Bruce.
“One thing we had found was that Metal Box was
such a huge company, it wasn’t always that helpful
to small companies, so we decided to concentrate our
efforts on that area, specialising in short-run flexible
packaging.”
Following Bruce’s appointment, Moore and Buckle
bought more machinery from Metal Box and moved to 11,000
sq ft premises in Sutton Road, well-known in St Helens
as the former GP Worsley
engineering site.
However, Morrisons supermarket later expanded and bought
out the site, prompting another move, this time to Sutton
Fold to a purpose-built 24,000 sq ft factory in April
2004.
“We bought the land from the council and designed
and built the factory ourselves,” added Bruce.
Mike and Barry have since retired and the team is now
made up of eight people, three of whom, Tom Rimmer,
John McNamara and Paul Finch have been with Moore and
Buckle for 21 years.
Production director Derek Hewitt joined the company
when Mike Moore was retiring and played a crucial role
in helping Bruce to run the business.
The company has also had a wedding, after employees
Paul and Sue Finch met while working there together.
“We are a close-knit, friendly team and it is
a real joy to work here,” said Bruce. “Everyone
pulls together and we are flexible with one another.”
The company has a turnover of £1.4 million with
Bruce overseeing a gentle expansion to ensure they can
meet the needs of all their clients, large and small.
“We have received ongoing support from the Chamber
for the past 25 years which has been incredible helpful
and we have been working with Sue Waller and her business
crime group. The
networking opportunities have also been very useful.”
Moore and Buckle is available on 01744 733066 or visit
their website
Read success stories about
Renaissance
AC Robinson
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