(L-R) Donald McLaren, Michael McLaren and Duncan Robertson
Port Glasgow-based McLaren Packaging has invested £3 million in the construction of a new facility in Stirling for subsidiary Blue Box Design, the specialist designer and manufacturer of bespoke presentation boxes for the UK food, drink and luxury sectors.
Blue Box Design, which currently operates from 8,000 sq ft premises in Stirling, was acquired in 2013 and has grown to employ 30 staff with annual revenues of £1.4m. Work on the new 20,000 sq ft manufacturing, design and testing centre is already underway, scheduled for completion in April 2018.
The investment, which has received Regional Selective Assistance through Scottish Enterprise, will create an additional 18 jobs over a four-year period, comprising a combination of shop floor operators and office-based staff. The site and building have been future-proofed to enable the subsequent extension into two additional modules; doubling, then tripling the initial floor space.
Blue Box Design managing director Duncan Robertson, said, ‘This new facility will greatly improve speed to market for our customers by reducing the packaging development cycle time from concept to delivery, thereby delivering production efficiencies and cost savings. It will expand our production capacity significantly, enable us to retain highly skilled staff and create new skilled jobs in Central Scotland for young people through the creation of a design and new product development centre of excellence for the luxury packaging sector.’
He concluded, ‘We see tremendous long-term value in a facility centrally-located within Scotland, between Edinburgh and Glasgow, close to the major operations of the whisky and food industries.’
‘The investment in the new-build unit demonstrates the importance of our Stirling operation and our long-term commitment to the future of luxury rigid boxes within our product portfolio,’ said Donald McLaren, managing director, McLaren Packaging. ‘Our overall aim is to increase turnover to £20 million by 2020 and this facility will make a strong contribution to achieving that goal.’
He continued, ‘We foresee significant growth in demand for luxury hand-finished boxes and this expansion will allow us to offer a comprehensive portfolio of high-end presentation boxes to the market. There is significant client interest for increasingly elaborate and bespoke packaging and this venture will enable us to deliver on this opportunity.’
Last year McLaren Packaging invested £350,000 in Blue Box Design’s current site to increase production with the installation of a semi-automatic box-wrapping machine, digital cutting machines, construction of a mezzanine floor to increase storage and an LED lighting system to ensure items can be fully inspected to preserve the highest quality standards.
