When was the company founded?

Seevent Plastics was started by Ken Fisher in June 1987 at a single unit in Peter Road in Lancing. In those days Seevent Plastics were manufacturing a bomb carrying device for the MOD which fitted under the wing of the Phantom Jet. We certainly don’t do that anymore but we do have units 2-9 on the same Peter Road site. Ken retired and sold me the business in January 2014.

What sector does the company now trade in?

Over the last six years, we have developed the business in Pharmaceutical, Animal Feed, Solid Fuel and Aggregate packaging and by continued research and development, have enabled our customers to reduce their packing costs by up to 25%. In 2016, we wrote and had published a parliamentary review on sustainability and the environment well before the Blue Planet programme some years later.

What are you doing about sustainability within your industry?

The challenge for all manufacturers in Plastic is creating the closed loop supply chain. At Seevent, we are already successfully using a minimum of 30% post-consumer waste in many of our products and making all our products 100% recyclable. This is ahead of Government legalisation which is currently proposed for 2022. Near- ly all our factory waste is recycled and we have less than 1% going to Landfill.

What sector is your largest customer?

Our largest market sector is now Pharmaceuticals and we have recently been appointed Global Supply Chain partner to GSK and we have a lot of product development going on for this particular market sector. This is being developed by our sister company, Polyplus Packaging in Reading who now specialise in Antistatic and Pharmaceutical markets.

How has the global pandemic affected your sector?

The current Pandemic crisis has affected us like nearly all businesses in the UK. Many of our customers in the retail sector have had to close and we have had to diversify as quickly as possible. We are now heavily involved in the supply of aprons to hospitals and nursing homes. Unfortunately, body bags are another product we are now turning our skills to due to the demand. We have had to furlough a number of staff but hope that we can open for business as usual very soon without losing any staff.

How has your bank assisted during these difficult times?

Natwest Bank have been one of the great partners to Seevent over the years and their continued support at this time has been truly magnificent. When we started on our expansion plan in 2015, Natwest put together a package enabling us to increase our production by 30%.

They believed in us and it paid off. They have allowed us to develop and experiment without onerous restrictions and have been a true supporter in everything we have done. When the pandemic hit, Natwest were the first to get in touch and secure a CBIL loan for us.

Seevent Plastics Ltd
2-7 Peter Road, Lancing, West Sussex, BN15 8TH
Tel: 01903 755877
Email: 07740 411056
Web: www.seevent.co.uk