President Presentation, BPF's 81st AGM May 2016

The following speech was given by David Hall, President, British Plastics Federation 

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There are always dangers generalising but nonetheless I am going to do just that by starting my report by saying that the plastics industry is generally in pretty good shape.  This has been confirmed by a succession of BPF Business Conditions Surveys which now typically prompt about 100 responses.  Our last survey published in February indicated that confidence levels were not at the height of early 2015, but were still robust.  The results indicate a more cautious outlook associated with the drop in oil prices and political uncertainty.  It appears that the health of the Global Economy and, even in February, uncertainty surrounding the EU referendum were causes for concern for the industry. If there is one thing Industry in general doesn’t like it is uncertainty. Last year, the outcome of the General Election was difficult to call, the previous year we had the Scottish Referendum, so we are almost getting used to an annual political event, yet, reassuringly the industry has proved its resilience.

One sector I do want to draw your attention to is recycling.  It is such an essential component of our sustainability story that it is absolutely essential that brand owners and retailers keep their commitment towards the use of recyclate, even in the face of lower virgin polymer costs.  I am pleased that, despite some challenges, the BPF Recycling Group continues to grow and plays an active part in developing the BPF’s overall commitment to having a plastics recycling culture more widely adopted in the UK.

One of the highlights of the Presidency is the now well established tradition of the BPF Council meeting with the Bank of England, which is held actually in one of the grand meeting rooms in the Bank, which is a great privilege.  These interchanges are highly valued by the Bank as plastics are used across almost all sectors, so they are able to get a unique insight into how pretty well the whole of the manufacturing and distribution sectors are performing.  At the last meeting on 15th July, we had a spirited interchange with Dr Martin Weale, a leading member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, especially on the topic of productivity.  The Bank and the Government appear to share the view that productivity is weak in the UK, yet we were able to provide a very positive picture regarding the UK plastics sector, which in terms of value added ranks as number two in Europe, just behind Germany.  You can see from this slide that we’ve had a very progressive story in value added since 2012.

This is just one element in our impressive story.  We are now a £23.5 billion turnover sector in the UK, employing 170,000 people in 6,200 companies.  I am pleased to say that the BPF, as the representative body for this major economic interest has expanded its platform significantly with the creation of a new Group within its structure to cover Plastics and Flexible Packaging, a step taken by the BPF’s Packaging members and the former PAFA organisation.  I very much would like to welcome PAFA members into the BPF and to wish the new, very important Group, a great start. 

To help articulate and position our industry more clearly, we have been developing a Strategy with encouragement from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.  This will be published in July so I will not pre-empt the release by giving further details at this point.  Suffice to say, we are very pleased with the output and hope our member firms will use it as a basis for discussion and to garner support from their local MPs and other stakeholders.

Competition between materials is always strong but it will be no surprise to you that as President of the BPF, I believe plastics are well placed to be the material of the 21st Century, and that we want the UK to be recognised as a global leader in their manufacture.  It is no accident that many leading engineering companies engaged in high performance sport are based in the UK.  I also want you to know the 170,000 employed in the plastics industry here significantly exceeds employment in the Automotive manufacturing, Chemical, Aerospace and indeed many other sectors.

We have scale and strength, yet we are still misunderstood and our reputation is not what it ought to be.  To address this, particularly in schools, we will be launching later in the year a Polymer Ambassadors campaign.  Sixty company representatives responded to my call to venture into schools to give presentations to school children on the benefits of plastics.  They will be backed up by a web resource, recently launched, ‘Polymer Zone’ which carries prepared presentations and a schools kit generously donated by PlasticsEurope.

Role models are always valuable in this process and the recipients of the BPF Gold Medal, awarded annually for distinguished service to the BPF, are great inspirations to us all.  I was delighted to award the medal in 2015 to Mike Jones of Distrupol for his longstanding Chairmanship of the Industrial Health and Safety Committee, and Dr Stuart Patrick, formerly of Ackros for his Chairmanship of the IOM3’s PVC Conference Committee.

In rounding up, I wanted to express my thanks to all of those who make it happen. I inherited an organisation in great shape so firstly I’d like to thank Mike Boswell for making it easy for me to pick up the reigns. I would also like to thank the BPF’s Council, Strategy and Finance Committee and all the Business Group and Central Expert Committee Chairmen, who give their time and debate your issues and interests with such passion.  In addition I would like to thank and congratulate the BPF staff for efficiently keeping the BPF show on the road. Finally, I would like to thank the members of the BPF for playing their part in the Federation and the Industry as a whole.