Federation Strong as Shadows Loom

Calum Forsyth, Group Managing Director of Wavin UK Ltd, was confirmed in his position of President of the British Plastics Federation for a second year at the BPF’s AGM held last week.

Pursuing his Presidential theme of ‘Fit for the Future’ Forsyth was able to describe the Federation’s robust programme singling out ‘Energy cost increases and plastics litter in the sea’ as issues which the Federation is tackling head on.  He highlighted the BPF’s efforts to give added impetus to the industry’s export efforts and pointed to the series of trade exhibitions which had a strong UK following in 2007 – Arabplast, in Dubai, Kunststoffe, in Dusseldorf, Plastpol, in Kielce and Plast Eurasia in Turkey.

Forsyth warned of “Challenging Times Ahead” and called on government to abandon Autumn rises in fuel duty and Vehicle Excise Duty and to provide momentum in the all important housing market. This is key to pulling through plastics building products, electrical goods and furnishings. He also urged government to provide help for first time buyers to secure mortgages and lower Stamp Duty and to increase support for social ownership housing schemes.

Help for industry was a strong message throughout. The BPF is currently pressing the industry’s claims for a Climate Change Agreement with the European Commission and can provide low risk access to wholesale energy markets for small and medium companies through its arrangement with Inenco. REACH is firmly on the Federation agenda with another seminar planned for the Autumn while the programme of seminars for retailers to support packaging interests is to be developed and expanded.

Promotional work for the plastics building products is to be initiated to take advantage of recent successes in the BRE’s Green Guide to Specification. The BPF is also organising this year’s ARMO International Rotational Moulding Conference in Belfast on September 7th – 9th and is planning a forum for plastics moulders at the Interplas fair where the Federation will have a strong presence.

The BPF website will be re-launched in October and this will target overseas markets in pursuit of the BPF’s message to the industry: “Go Global”.

Philip Watkins, Managing Director of Gabriel-Chemie UK, also confirmed as Honorary Treasurer for another year was able to report a healthy financial situation for 2007 with the Federation making a £8k surplus.

Elected to the BPF’s Council were:

Polymer Materials Manufacturers

John  Ellis, Bayer Material Science

Additive Suppliers & Specialist Compounders

Greg Hammond, Gabriel-Chemie UK
Jeff Kelly, Kronos

Processors

Bruce Margetts, RPC Containers
Ian Mills, Albis (UK) Ltd
Mike Ormesher, Springvale EPS
Laurence Tanty, Linpac Allibert
Chris Tudgay, Rehau
Stephen Mancey, Logoplaste

Ends

For further information on this press release, please contact Philip Batten, British Plastics Federation, 6 Bath Place, Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3JE, tel 020 7457 5000, fax 020 7457 5045, email: [email protected]

Notes for editor

1) 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