Honouring a legacy
BPF’s Philip Law reflects on the federation’s rich heritage and pays tribute to former members who contributed to its industrial success.
Every so often, something happens to evoke nostalgia for the BPF heritage and the people who made the BPF what it is today. And so, it was three weeks ago that I heard of the passing of my former colleague from the late 1970s and 80s, Richard Edy (1945 – 2024), then head of public relations at the BPF.
Richard joined the BPF from the British Rubber Manufacturers Association but had earlier made his name at a record company promoting the music of Desmond Dekker and Keith West ( of ‘Excerpts from a Teenage Opera’ fame ). At the BPF, Richard and I worked on many projects together but two stand out: we staged a series of regional seminars to promote the use of a code of practice on the safety of injection moulding machines and later, we fought hard to keep PVC cling film on the shelves as an internal industry spat between rival materials spilled over into the public domain. But despite the gravity of our assignments, Richard was always able to combine his many talents with good humour and geniality to defuse inevitable tensions. He went on to serve as director of the National Tyre Distributors Association for over 25 years.
Forgive this sentimental retrospective, but Richard’s career is a reminder that we need people of all backgrounds and skills to move the industry forward. As ever it’s difficult to generalise about the industry’s current performance. Since Covid, there has been a mixed outlook on profitability with the industry evenly split between expectations of improvements and decline. Our most recent survey, of a few weeks ago, revealed only slight investment intentions for this year. However taking a twelve-month view, companies are generally optimistic, perhaps with an expectation of lessening political turmoil and greater certainty following an election.
I’m delighted to welcome Tim Wilson, chief technical officer at Engineered Foam Products, as the new chairman of the BPF’s Expanded Polystyrene Group, who takes over from David Emes. Tim is very experienced in the industry, having joined the firm as an intern when it was Tuscarora. He has progressed through design, sales and plant management to become operations director and latterly, to his current position. He is passionate about the material, and the future opportunities for the industry especially in the sphere of ‘net zero carbon’. My personal thanks go to David Emes who has served the group as chairman for 15 years. My colleague Angela Fredericks has been appointed to manage the group’s activities and I know that she is very keen to work with Tim to take the group forward to dispel myths and to present impressive facts about EPS products.
With a further eye to the future, a group of 30 BPF moulders is looking forward to visiting the Lego plant at Billund in Denmark for a factory tour and a discussion on approaches to productivity, materials selection and sustainability, with senior Lego executives, on April 11th – 12th. Later that month, BPF will also be exhibiting at Chinaplas in Shanghai, April 23rd - 26th, and will be leading a mission of members touring the fair and attending various networking events. More locally, the BPF is presenting its seminar on Improving Health and Safety in the Plastics Industry on March 21st, also supported by Composites UK.