British Plastics Federation Meets Bank of England

The British Plastics Federation’s Council held its annual meeting at the Bank of England on Wednesday, 15th July. Headed up by BPF President, David Hall, the BPF team met the Bank’s Greater London Agent, Peter Andrews and Monetary Policy Committee member, Dr Martin Weale.

The BPF was able to report on a strong performance from the UK plastics industry based on the results of its latest Business Conditions Survey conducted over June and July. This revealed signs of further improvement in both revenue growth and profitability, with both UK and export markets contributing to the uplift. 

BPF Council members reported in detail that among the strongest sectors were manufacturers of technical components, benefiting from the re-shoring of existing projects from China and from the growing preference of UK design houses to work with UK manufacturers. Investment in plant and equipment was being facilitated by the strong pound and is being maintained at a high level.

The automotive sector was a major contributor to growth. There had been recent major investments by Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Vauxhall and sales of British built cars are at the highest level for five years.

Download the Business Conditions Survey June 2015 here

Companies supplying the building market reported that the long term trend is positive.Infrastructure has performed well and new housing starts are in the  process of recovering to pre 2008-9 levels. The industry is  hopeful that the package of planning reforms, recently announced, will serve to give a further boost. 

In packaging markets, levels of innovation by UK firms are very high with considerable progress registered in the lightweighting of packs. 

BPF challenged the official picture of relatively low productivity for British manufacture questioning the criteria used. They pointed out that firms in the UK plastics industry, particularly those involved in high volume manufacture, had world-beating levels of productivity.

A mixed picture for export markets emerged with exporters involved in construction markets in China and Brazil providing pessimistic testimony. However high-tech applications in China were performing strongly. Several segments of the EU market were reported as promising.

David Hall said ‘Business confidence in the UK plastics sector is at a high level.  We are extremely well positioned to meet the challenges of the emerging 'circular economy' and our growing recycling achievements will be central to this’.

Speaking for the Bank, Peter Andrews said ‘we value highly our in-depth contact with the British Plastics Federation.  It provides an extraordinary valuable insight into the performance of a wide range of British manufacturing, distribution and retailing activities’.

ENDS     

For all media enquiries, BPF logos and images please contact Laura Hindley, Communications and Industrial Issues Executive on [email protected] or 0207 457 5043 

Notes for editors
The British Plastics Federation (BPF) is the UK trade association for the Plastics Industry – representing the whole supply chain including polymer producers, distributors, additives suppliers, machinery manufacturers, processors and recyclers.