Celebrating 60 Years in Business

In July 2015 we are celebrating 60 years in business! We would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all our customers for their support throughout the years. Over the last 60 years our business has gone from strength to strength, surviving three recessions and a major fire. The diversity of the industries we supply and our ability to adapt to customer needs has enabled us to take advantage of new product opportunities and expand the business. From our humble beginnings selling used hessian sacks sourced through Liverpool Port, we have developed into a dynamic business, supplying over 1000 customers throughout the UK and Europe. Back in 1955, Liverpool had a strong manufacturing base and there was a high demand for packaging. As Weir & Carmichael’s product portfolio expanded new materials were introduced including woven polypropylene, polythene, paper and bulk bags. Our industry sectors range enormously from reptiles to food ingredients and from flood defence to props for television productions. During the past decade we have established a significant presence in the waste and recycling sectors and had great success supplying wheeled bins, kerbside recycling bags and boxes. Our commitment to quality and the investments made in employee training have helped us to win many large scale tenders and subsequent listings on local authority frameworks. Many local authorities and waste management customers come back to us year after year for their recycling products. A move to bigger premises in 2010 enabled further expansion, with more warehouse space for customer specific stock and an open plan office to accommodate our growing team. In 2011 we introduced a new innovation to the packaging sector in the form of our Britwrap range of protective packaging products. These products are aimed at the retail sector, a previously untapped market for us which has proved to be a great success. The products have been recognised in many awards for innovation and sustainability, resulting in us winning the title of ‘Green Business of the Year’ in the 2011 Liverpool Daily Post Regional business awards. We were also top 20 UK finalists in the HSBC European Business Awards. The Britwrap range has gone from strength to strength and we now have a strong presence in the removals and storage, furniture retail and kitchen sectors. We took our business online in 2013 and launched a new website and online shop. For the first time we could supply small quantities of our quality packaging products, allowing small users to purchase on line. This has also proved to be a great success as customers like the facility of buying in smaller quantities, whilst still getting competitive prices and rapid delivery combined with the good service that we are renowned for. We are still a family run business and our workforce has grown to a total of 36 employees. Our sales team now has 11 Account Managers to provide the best service possible to our loyal customers. Many of our employees have worked for Weir & Carmichael for over 20 years! We are proud to say we still have many industrial customers who have been trading with us since the 1970’s and are now the largest importer of woven polypropylene sacks in the UK, selling over 10 million sacks per annum and have a product portfolio featuring hundreds of products for industrial, packaging and recycling applications. In our dedication to continuous improvement and business excellence we have improved our internal business processes and achieved accreditation to ISO9001 for quality, ISO14001 for Environmental Management and more recently ISO 18001 for health and safety management. We have also set up the initiative ‘Weir & Carmichael in the Community’, a continuous commitment to improving the world we live in. We support a range of local and international initiatives to help us give back to the communities and environments we operate within. These include: charity events, sponsored marathons and the donation of packaging for prosthetic limbs being sent to Ghana. More recently we have invested in a new computer system and have taken on three new Sales Co-ordinators to deal with the increased demand for our packaging products. Director Barrie Williams who has worked at Weir & Carmichael for 45 years stated “The business continues to go from strength to strength. Our investment in staff, IT and new premises shows our commitment to expanding the business and offering the best possible service and packaging products to our customers” Our plans for the future include the continued growth of both our traditional and online channels and increasing our product range to provide a full one stop shop for all our customers. Here’s to the next 60 years!

For more information on Celebrating 60 Years in Business talk to Weir & Carmichael Ltd