Dragon Plastics to breath life into Riverside acquisition

David McCormack, packagingnews.co.uk, 14 June 2007

 

Welsh closure manufacturer Dragon Plastics has acquired bottle manufacturer Riverside Plastics less than 24 hours after it went into administration.

 

The business - now trading as Riverside Packaging - is owned by Dragon's newly created associate company Gwalia Plastics.

 

Both Dragon and Riverside are located at the Treforest Industrial Estate in Pontypridd, South Wales. But plans are afoot to create an integrated plant on the Dragon site.

 

According to Dragon managing director Rod Parker, who is also a director of the new company, the reasoning behind the purchase is to take advantage of the complementary trading opportunities.

 

"Riverside customers will be able to rely upon a financially secure bottle supplier with enhanced design and development capabilities and up-to-the-minute closure technology from Dragon Plastics," said Parker.

 

Riverside mainly produces bottles for the pharmaceutical and automotive additive markets. 

 

Last October it won a contract to make 250ml and 500ml bottles for a new range of anti-bacterial handwashes being produced by Yorkshire-based soap manufacturer John Drury & Co.

 

It is not presently known if all jobs at Riverside have been secured following the acquisition.

 

Dragon has said it intends to invest 'substantially' in new technology and equipment for the bottle business. It has also applied for a grant from the Welsh National Assembly.

 

Graham McKenzie, previously sales and marketing director at Riverside Plastics, will continue with the new company as business development manager, while Rod Parker and Dragon chairman Ian Parker are both directors.

 

 

WRAP calls on companies to close HDPE bottle loop

Packaging News, 01 July 2006

 

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is urging companies to establish an industrial sorting and closed-loop recycling process for post-use HDPE bottles.

 

This follows the completion of a WRAP development project that demonstrated HDPE milk bottles could be recycled into new ones on a commercially viable and environmentally sound basis. Such a facility would be unique in the UK.

 

“It is a genuine case of ‘we have the technology’,” said Dr Paul Davidson, WRAP’s plastics technology manager (pictured). “We have introduced a capital support competition to fund up to 30 per cent of the cost of the infrastructure, plant and equipment to enable UK industry to lead the world in establishing such a recycling process.”

 

Michelle O’Riley, WRAP’s capital grant manager, added: “We aim to achieve up to 30 per cent recycled HDPE content in the manufacture of one quarter of the UK’s plastic milk bottle production. We also want to increase processing capacity for HDPE recycled plastic in food applications by 13,000 tonnes/yr. To meet this target, we may even support more than one plant.”

 

 

WRAP’s initial R&D project was delivered by a consortium of leading European companies and research institutes, led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging in Germany. Partners included Dairy Crest, Nampak Plastics and Delleve Plastics, as well as RAPRA Technology in the UK.