Hi everyone
For the second blog, I thought I’d delve in to the archives for a story from back in 2004 which was picked up by local press and by the local St.Helens chamber of commerce.
The below is an article taken from their magazine which recounts the story of Moore & Buckle saving a Russian McDonalds from disaster on their opening day. It gives a good background on the history of the company as well as showing our ethos of always pulling out all of the stops to help our customers.
I think what is more impressive is that all of the people from Moore & buckle mentioned in the article all still work here!
I hope you enjoy and for more information on the St.Helens Chamber of Commerce and their great work, please follow this link
www.sthelenschamber.com
Thanks
Damian
When fast food giant McDonalds realised it didn’t have any sachets of ketchup just days before the grand opening of its Moscow restaurant, a St Helens flexible packaging company stepped in to help.
In just two days, Moore and Buckle created and printed the packaging for thousands of ketchup sachets and managing director Bruce Pritchard even jumped in his car and drove the packaging to Hemel Hempstead where they continued their journey to Russia in time for the flagship launch.
In fact the company has gained such a reputation for efficiency that Bruce regularly receives calls at 10am on Friday morning from companies shouting ‘Help!’
“These are often major blue chip organisations who have been let down by other suppliers,” explained Bruce. “There is an incredible buzz in the factory as we are a real team here and I can rely on everyone pulling together to help.”
Thanks to this reputation, Moore and Buckle, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, has some major league clients including McDonalds, Findus, Walls, Marks and Spencer and Glenmorangie Whisky. As well as flexible packaging, the company also provides a full technical design service and is currently helping Lee Cooper with a World Cup promotion.
Mike Moore and Barry Buckle set up the company in 1981 after they were made redundant from national packaging company Metal Box, which shed hundreds of jobs from its Merseyside plant.
The pair cast around the North West looking for a location and were impressed by St Helens and a project being run by Pilkingtons to encourage new businesses to set up in the area. They also received lots of help and support from St Helens Chamber and rented a small unit in Moorfoot Road with machinery bought from Metal Box.
Bruce also worked for Metal Box and joined Mike and Barry in 1985.
“Metal Box was incredibly helpful in selling off its machinery to us cheaply, they were very supportive of what we were doing,” explained Bruce. “One thing we had found was that Metal Box was such a huge company, it wasn’t always that helpful to small companies, so we decided to concentrate our efforts on that area, specialising in short-run flexible packaging.”
Following Bruce’s appointment, Moore and Buckle bought more machinery from Metal Box and moved to 11,000 sq ft premises in Sutton Road, well-known in St Helens as the former GP Worsley engineering site.
However, Morrisons supermarket later expanded and bought out the site, prompting another move, this time to Sutton Fold to a purpose-built 24,000 sq ft factory in April 2004.
“We bought the land from the council and designed and built the factory ourselves,” added Bruce.
Mike and Barry have since retired and the team is now made up of eight people, three of whom, Tom Rimmer, John McNamara and Paul Finch have been with Moore and Buckle for 21 years. Production director Derek Hewitt joined the company when Mike Moore was retiring and played a crucial role in helping Bruce to run the business. The company has also had a wedding, after employees Paul and Sue Finch met while working there together.
“We are a close-knit, friendly team and it is a real joy to work here,” said Bruce. “Everyone pulls together and we are flexible with one another.”
The company has a turnover of £1.4 million with Bruce overseeing a gentle expansion to ensure they can meet the needs of all their clients, large and small.
“We have received ongoing support from the Chamber for the past 25 years which has been incredible helpful and we have been working with Sue Waller and her business crime group. The networking opportunities have also been very useful.”
“Metal Box was incredibly helpful in selling off its machinery to us cheaply, they were very supportive of what we were doing,” explained Bruce. “One thing we had found was that Metal Box was such a huge company, it wasn’t always that helpful to small companies, so we decided to concentrate our efforts on that area, specialising in short-run flexible packaging.”
Following Bruce’s appointment, Moore and Buckle bought more machinery from Metal Box and moved to 11,000 sq ft premises in Sutton Road, well-known in St Helens as the former GP Worsley engineering site.
However, Morrisons supermarket later expanded and bought out the site, prompting another move, this time to Sutton Fold to a purpose-built 24,000 sq ft factory in April 2004.
“We bought the land from the council and designed and built the factory ourselves,” added Bruce.
Mike and Barry have since retired and the team is now made up of eight people, three of whom, Tom Rimmer, John McNamara and Paul Finch have been with Moore and Buckle for 21 years. Production director Derek Hewitt joined the company when Mike Moore was retiring and played a crucial role in helping Bruce to run the business. The company has also had a wedding, after employees Paul and Sue Finch met while working there together.
“We are a close-knit, friendly team and it is a real joy to work here,” said Bruce. “Everyone pulls together and we are flexible with one another.”
The company has a turnover of £1.4 million with Bruce overseeing a gentle expansion to ensure they can meet the needs of all their clients, large and small.
“We have received ongoing support from the Chamber for the past 25 years which has been incredible helpful and we have been working with Sue Waller and her business crime group. The networking opportunities have also been very useful.”
Many thanks to St Helens Chambers Magazine for permission of this article.
