It’s whisky (bottle-tops) galore at new factory

Bright news on the industrial front and Aberdeen this week with a rejuvenated city industrial concern poised to take the lead in the modern plastics industry in Scotland.

The Old homeworks in Hutcheon Street, which was taken over nine months ago by a Glasgow Plastics firm, is now firmly established and, with installation of modern machinery is now the largest plastic injection moulding concern in Scotland.

Within a couple of weeks this factory will be : 

• Producing 1,500,000 industrial plastic items a week
• Going into 24-hour a day production
• Have its labour force increased by 40 to 100 people.

This is indeed wonderful news for the city which has been crying out for so long for someone to enter into the modern fields of industry, to find that for months a local concern has been quietly gearing up to enter this competitive but potentially great market.

While Aberdeen people still thought of the combs in a quiet street near the city centre as a place which only makes combs, feverish activity was going on. Production was being replanned in the most modern terms and the latest injection moulding machinery was being installed.

The story of this transformation was given me this week by Mr Hugh Smith, resident director, who came to the city from Glasgow, where he had a vast experience of the new plastics industry.

POTENTIAL

“There is a tremendous potential for Plastics in the Industrial field,”  said Mr Smith “ and we have been very active during the past few months in reassessing the export markets for our standard lines as well as any new ones which we can switch to.”

“The board of directors has appointed a new export director, Mr C.B. Cruickshank,  a Glasgow man,  in our all-out efforts to capture greater export trade. And from the research we have done it appears that the potential for increased export trade is tremendous.”

While this factory will still turn out combs and colourful plastic tableware, their former main products, a complete changeover of production will be in whisky and wine bottle tops, which can be turned out in millions by the new machines.

But there is even an ever-increasing demand for the older product of plastic tableware. Hospitals want this type of ware more and more, principally because it is unbreakable. With more and more people owning cars the demand for plastic cups, saucers and plates for picnicking is greater than ever.

But the range of productions by injection moulding is vast explained Mr Smith, especially in the Industrial field. One example is the contract the firm has obtained from a national firm of refrigerator manufacturers in Dundee for plastic parts for these household and catering establishment items.

PLASTIC BOXES

Plastic boxes for the pharmaceutical trade are also being manufactured as well as tops for vacuum flasks and other items.

But the happy news for City workers is the increase in the factory’s labour force.

“We reopen on Monday after the holiday break and within a couple of weeks we will be operating at 24-hour-day production.”  said Mr Smith. “To cope with this we have increased our labour force by 40 and we anticipate that, within the next three years we will have built up business so much that this force will be increased by another 40 to 50 workers.”

The day work will be divided into three shifts, one during the normal working day, another, slightly longer as a night shift and there will be what Mr Smith calls a “ twilight shift” operating from 5 to 9 p.m., which will be worked mainly by part-time married women.

Mr Smith also stated that both he and his core directors had been immensely impressed by the quality of the labour they had recruited in Aberdeen.

“Obviously they don’t know much about plastic injection moulding, but they seem to be of the standard that they will quickly train and adapt themselves to what they have to do,”  he said.

KEY-WORKERS

Mr Smith has brought six key-workers through from the firm’s big Glasgow factory, who will be either specialised engineers for maintenance duties or will be used in training the new recruits to this modern industry.

And he spoke highly of the cooperation of Aberdeen Corporation in providing houses for six of these essential men from Glasgow. Without that, Mr Smith said, the could not have got the men to come through and it has made all the difference in getting the factory ready.

He is also grateful for the cooperation and help he has received from trade union officials and from the local Ministry of Labour.

 Aberdeen as a whole will be watching with interest the progress of this modern plastics concern.

Source : It’s whisky (bottle-tops) galore, Aberdeen Press and Journal article, 18th July 1964