{"id":4068,"date":"2025-02-24T07:02:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/?p=4068"},"modified":"2025-02-24T07:02:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T15:02:53","slug":"barkley-plastics-secures-contracts-in-automotive-and-luxury-sectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/barkley-plastics-secures-contracts-in-automotive-and-luxury-sectors\/","title":{"rendered":"Barkley Plastics Secures Contracts in Automotive and Luxury Sectors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image: Barkley Plastics<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BIRMINGHAM, UK, Feb 24, 2025 – Barkley Plastics marks 60 years of business later in February 2025. It has won work to produce controller parts and ambient lighting for a luxury high-end shower manufacturer, car charger components for Fast Amps, and environmentally friendly plumbing fittings for Ecoclip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These latest \u2018wins\u2019 – combined with its own \u2018PlasFloor\u2019 flooring tile range and ongoing interior trim and specialist lighting products orders from Nissan, Toyota, JLR, and several supercar manufacturers – have helped the company bounce back from a difficult two years with the firm now on course to turnover more than \u00a34M and exciting plans in place to further increase revenues by 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shopfloor. Image: Barkley Plastics<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Expansion plans have been boosted by the \u00a3100,000 modernization and streamlining of its Highgate facility to include several cobots for increased automation and a new temperature-controlled quality control room that houses two coordinate measurement machines and a vision scope system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince Covid-19 there has been a lot of supply chain disruption and the automotive sector has been extremely volatile in terms of volumes,\u201d explained Matt Harwood, who took over as managing director from his father Mark in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLike before in our 60-year history, we\u2019ve chosen to face these challenges head-on and are now in a position to target a significant amount of reshoring work that directly suits our technical plastic molding expertise and the fact we have our own onsite toolroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continued, \u201cIt\u2019s a great achievement to last six decades in manufacturing and we\u2019ve seen some interesting times. What has stood out throughout has been the passion from our staff to deliver the very best service to customers – this is typified by the fact we have six members of our 53-strong workforce who have been with us for more than 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow that we have refined our factory and increased efficiency, we are in a perfect position to offer competitive prices and are determined to help bring more production back to the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From Left to Right: (l-r) Peter Atkins, Matt Harwood,\u00a0Rob\u00a0Andrews, Steve Smith, Mark Harwood and Caswell Fray. Image: Barkley Plastics<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Barkley Plastics, that holds ISO:9001 quality and ISO:14001 environmental accreditations, produces high-precision tools capable of delivering millions of moldings for distribution throughout the UK, Europe, and across the world-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an equipped toolmaking facility within its molding plant, it can support its client base with initial design and product development through to manufacture and assembly, with over 30 modern molding presses – ranging from 5 to 650 tons – able to produce intricate components weighing less than a gram right up to parts that are a meter squared and 2.5kg in weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: Barkley Plastics<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There have been some landmark and unusual projects over the years, including the 1970s \u2018Homepride Flour Men,\u2019 the Big Yellow Teapot for bluebird toys, and making 20,000 plastic baubles for the world\u2019s most enormous chandelier – first used at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Smith, operations director at Barkley Plastics, commented: \u201cThe new contract with the luxury shower manufacturer is a perfect example of where we come into our own. We breathed new life into some of its near obsolete tooling, which gave them the confidence to give us the challenge of developing technical components and ambient lighting for their new product ranges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe quickly proved we could manufacture it to the quality and aesthetic finish required and, importantly, at a cost point that worked for them. I\u2019m sure this would have gone overseas before we stepped in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barkley Plastics is focused on lowering its carbon footprint. The company collaborates with partners to create new molding technologies that cut energy use and reduce cycle times. A Net Zero project with WMG has also helped insulate some of its larger molding machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image: Barkley Plastics<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Matt concluded: \u201cWe\u2019re always looking at ways where we can innovate processes and technologies, but it always seems to be that manufacturing has to do it on its own without any real support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLocally, the introduction of Birmingham\u2019s Clean Air Zone in recent years has negatively impacted the way we operate and the government, despite calling for growth, is introducing measures that makes it increasingly difficult for UK companies to remain competitive and in a position to take advantage of the reshoring opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Barkley Plastics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Barkley Plastics<\/a>, established in 1965 and headquartered in Birmingham, UK, specializes in plastic injection molding and tooling services. Serving automotive, construction, electronics, retail, and medical industries, the company offers solutions from design and tool manufacture to molding and assembly. With a facility housing molding machines and an extensive in-house tool-making department, Barkley Plastics produces high-precision tools capable of delivering millions of moldings for clients worldwide. The company holds ISO:9001 quality and ISO:14001 environmental accreditations, underscoring its commitment to quality and environmental standards. As of 2025, Barkley Plastics celebrates 60 years of operation, continuing to support a diverse range of market sectors with its expertise in plastic injection moldings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

60 years in business, invests \u00a3100K in automation, expands production, secures new contracts, and targets \u00a34M turnover by 2026, focusing on efficiency and reshoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,16],"tags":[403,1406,399,397,1407,1408,690,485,614],"class_list":["post-4068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manufacturing","category-news","tag-automotiveindustry","tag-barkleyplastics","tag-industrygrowth","tag-manufacturinginnovation","tag-plasticmolding","tag-reshoring","tag-smartfactories","tag-sustainablemanufacturing","tag-ukmanufacturing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4068"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4086,"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4068\/revisions\/4086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/superwomansolutions.com\/engtechnica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}