BOXING CLEVER
Ever wondered where your storage baskets, plant pots, water butts and watering cans are made? Probably not as far away as you think, as Penny Stretton finds out
IT’S easy to assume that lots of the plastic items we buy and use on a daily basis come from thousands of miles away, but it turns out lots of them are created right here. They are being pumped out in their thousands from the small Derbyshire village of Pinxton.
Strata Products is a family-run business on a huge scale, making household storage solutions, as well as decorative planters, gardening products, baby gear and Mrs Hinch-inspired baskets and boxes for organising shelves.
At the site, more than 200 staff work across a vast 40,000 sq-ft warehouse which straddles the village’s Plymouth Avenue.
Strata Products started life in Pinxton in 1987 after the government gave out subsidies for companies to bring their businesses to former mining communities which needed industry and jobs.
It was founded by the current managing director’s grandfather some years after he came here as a 19-year-old fleeing from Nazi Germany and was given a home by the famous Cadbury family, who were known for offering refuge to those fleeing the country.
Since its start, Strata has gone from strength to strength, now employing hundreds of workers and now has sales of around £21 million.
Today, the company is owned by US firm Berry Global, but the day-to-day running remains with the family and managing director Jay Ilsen, 38, is the grandson of Strata’s founder.
He took over the role from his own father, Michael Ilsen, and is just as dedicated to the business as the two previous generations.
Jay oversees the production of products at Pinxton and proudly gave a tour of the factory which uses three methods of production for thousands of items an hour at its bustling warehouse.
Forty huge machines run 24 hours, all making a range of products in different ways, overseen by vital staff in roles such as machine setters and operators, pallet pullers, maintenance engineers and a tool room team.
“We use traditional injection moulding, as well as rotation moulding and blow moulding,” explained Jay.
Many of us have probably never given much thought to what goes into making a plant pot but the factory is a fascinating insight into how every day items come to life.
While injection moulding offers a more traditional way of creating plastic items when the liquid plastic is poured in and the shape pressed out, rotary moulding gives the chance to add design and texture to items and
Jay explained that the use of and investment into this technique is part of what helps Strata stand out.
“Rotary moulding gives us the ability to create much more elaborate and attractive designs,” explains Jay, who joined the family business in 2007 as sales director and recently took over as managing director.
“Although the process is more expensive and labour intensive, the end result is worthwhile as we can create a whole range of plastic designs that look much better than some of the more basic products on offer.”
The rotary moulding technique involves powdered plastic being put into any shaped mould. The mould is rotated and put into a very hot oven where the plastic layers up inside the hollow mould, before being placed in a cooling area involving fans and a fine mist of water.
“The rotary machines use as many as 360 different tools to create 20 different designs,” says Jay.
“We produce 4,000 planters and plant pots a day and sell around 900,0000 a year.”
The site is home to 40 machines working 24 hours to create products which are then sold to major chains including B&M, B&Q, The Range, Argos, Wilko and most major supermarkets.
Strata also now exports to more than 40 countries with products ending up places including the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Russia and Japan.
While the company has always done well, Jay says that major change was needed in 2007 and its growth has had a much steeper climb since then.
“We needed to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and bring on more clients,” said Jay. “We were doing well and had a good base of loyal happy clients, but it was a time to grow and take Strata to the next level.”
In 2013 Strata was beginning to dominate the market and acquired struggling gardening brand Sankey. In 2016, Strata was awarded a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise as a result of its impressive export growth.
Jay and his father met the Queen, with Jay describing it as a great moment in the company’s history.
“It was a very proud achievement which we were given the award for our growth in export and that’s still where we see the future of the company.”
While Strata is now focused on growing in its export markets around the world, Jay says it does take consideration for the planet seriously and that the majority of the plastic it uses is recycled.
“Seventy per cent of our plastic is recycled,” said Jay. “The recycled plastic is processed and supplied to us by one of our sister companies. This is an important aspect to our business as we want to supply niche products that are sustainable and high quality.”
Many of the company’s products are made from 95 per cent recycled plastic, including the company’s leading black 145-litre heavy duty trunks which are made at a rate of 1,900 a day in the gigantic £250,000 injection mould machines.
“These black storage trunks might be recognisable to a lot of people,” says Jay. “The Heavy Duty Range is one of our top lines and we make this trunk in a range of sizes. We wanted to create something really durable and useful which was better than the basic plastic storage boxes on sale.”
With the garden range making up 50 per cent of Strata’s product range and 45 per cent being homewares, Strata has been lucky enough to have maintained sales throughout the pandemic as people stayed at home and made improvements.
“During the pandemic, we’ve been able to maintain jobs and production as the demand for home and garden items has been very high. In fact, we’re proud to have been one of the main companies to have been able to keep up with demand over the last year.”
And as Brits fell back in love with their gardens, demand for Strata’s water butts increased – thankfully, the factory produces 4,000 a day.
They are created using a blow mould technique which is fascinating to watch. A large, thick tube shaped piece of soft plastic is lowered on to an air pipe inside the machine. This is them clamped between two moulds and air is blown into the middle of the soft plastic, blowing it out into the shape of the hollow butt inside the mould. The whole process takes just one minute.
As well as having weathered the pandemic, Jay says that Strata has benefited from the Instagram trend for decluttering, thanks to the likes of stars such as Mrs Hinch who has turned tidying into an online art form, and Stacey Solomon, who shows before and after shots of her home using “tap to tidy” Instagram posts.
Showing a range of homeware baskets in on trend pastels as well as neutral shades, Jay said: “These are really popular off the back of the Mrs Hinch trend and we’re always looking for ways we can offer our clients something a little different, so they have lids.
“Lids might not seem like a big thing but they help the product stand out and make it more functional.”
Strata’s 40 machines are capable of
During the pandemic, we’ve been able to maintain jobs and production as the demand for home and garden items has been very high
Jay Ilsen
creating hundreds of the home, garden and baby items we see at stores across the region and are at the forefront of helping to give consumers more choice, as Jay explains.
“These machines give us the opportunity to create plastic products which with stone and ceramic effects.
“We’re also able to create designs that look like timber and these are really popular too as they’re less expensive and last longer.”
The rotary moulding method is labour intensive according to Jay and in general the daily running of Strata Products is hot and noisy work. But Jay says bosses know their teams work incredibly hard and says they strive to show staff they’re valued.
“We’ve struggled to attract as many staff recently because of the problems with workers from elsewhere being able to enter the country. We’ve also been hit by the new Amazon site opening as they are able to offer much more flexible working hours than we can because of the size of their operation.
“However, we’re constantly looking for ways to show our staff that we value them and last week we arranged for an ice cream van to be on site and give everyone a treat. We’re also offering incentives such as shopping vouchers to those who take up the Covid-19 vaccine.” Earlier this month, the MP for Bolsover, Mark Fletcher, visited the Pinxton factory and says the firm is a good example of the type of business the area needs to attract in order for the East Midlands to achieve its “levellingup” ambitions.
Following his visit to Strata Products and nearby Delden Cranes, he said: “It’s companies like the ones I’ve visited over the last couple of days that we need to continue attracting to the Bolsover constituency if we’re to achieve our goal of levelling up the area. Building back from the pandemic and offering good quality local jobs is central to much of the work I’m trying to do.
“Winning the East Midlands Freeport bid back in March was a huge win for the region and will help to continue attracting investment and jobs into the wider area.
“What we’re showing is that you won’t have to relocate elsewhere to get a good job, and that the Bolsover constituency and wider East Midlands is a brilliant place to do business.”
The pandemic definitely reminded us all that home is where the heart is but while lots of us were improving the places we live, who knew that so many of our homes and gardens were adorned with plastic products made just down the road.