Most of the UK’s injection moulders are small to medium enterprises (SMEs): full of innovation but increasingly hampered by a double whammy of slowing demand and rising government taxes. Wittmann UK’s Joint MD, Tracy Cadman, summarises the issues and calls for action to see us through 2026.
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As echoed by our Wittmann Group President, Michael Wittmann, in his 2025 review, “The markets are volatile. For our industry, this means more complexity, more pressure to adapt and a necessity to respond even more flexibly.”
An increasingly global manufacturing village needs an increasingly competitive response from companies and nations alike. Sadly, the care of our own UK manufacturing sector has left much to be desired in the past few decades. The issue is the slowing market demand, now facing a raft of increased employer costs. Who would be an employer – let alone an SME employer – in such circumstances?
The November 2025 UK budget attempted to give with one hand what the other hand had taken away, but with mixed results. For example, tax relief on salary-sacrificed pension contributions was restricted. Charging both employers and employees NICs on pension contributions further chokes any efforts to recruit, retain and train. On the plus side, the budget provided some unexpected news. For instance, most companies will welcome the decision to expand capital allowances for leased equipment, supporting investment in modern technology while enabling full expensing in the tax system.
Some recognition of the training roadblock was also provided in the form of greater support for SMEs hiring apprentices under 25. The government agreed to consult on the business energy support scheme, hopefully reducing the UK’s uncompetitive energy costs.
Plastic materials’ public reputation has undergone a systematic, one-way trashing over the last 40 years, leading to the current UK Plastics Packaging Tax. This ongoing anti-plastics sentiment restricts our sector’s growth. It doesn’t stand up to real science, but it denigrates plastics as ‘unenvironmental,’ ignoring their real recycling achievements. The BPF has warned that the UK’s plastics recycling infrastructure is threatened with extinction in the coming months. The possibility of investing in the UK’s much-needed chemical recycling also seems improbable. The manufacturing industry is asked to put our faith in the emerging circular economy, but without these two necessary resources, the UK won’t deliver.
Other solutions will always be provided and nowhere is this truer than in industrial and technical innovation – something that was very evident at K Show 2025 in Düsseldorf. The enthusiasm and appetite for new plastics technology at the show were as high as they have ever been. The reason is simple: if companies and nations don’t invest and innovate, others will be putting the UK even further behind. K 2025 reminds us of the UK’s most important plastics event in 2026: Interplas, NEC Birmingham, June 2-4. We’re very fortunate to have such a UK showcase in mind.
If I were allowed a magic wand and three wishes to herald in Interplas 2026, they might be something like this:
•An ending to the nonsensical anti-plastics posturing and discrimination
•The UK Government committed to helping our SME moulders equip themselves further with capital equipment and Intellectual Property (IP)
•Employers rewarded, not penalised, for being employers, with additional and generous support for addressing the growing hiatus in skills and manpower
The road ahead seems clear. What’s stopping us?