Meet the Moulder: WSM Plastics

WSM Plastics is one of the UK’s many moulders at the front line of the push to keep the country’s manufacturing sector competitive. Dave Gray caught up with Neil Paice, sales manager at WSM, to discuss the latest trends and challenges facing the Lancing-based firm.

DG: What are some of the customer trends that you're seeing in moulding enquiries at the moment?

NP: At WSM, we specialise in high-end materials and applications with more requirements than a straightforward plastic molding. So for example, our customers might need some additional additives for strength, particular colours, something a bit more complex. As a result of our capabilities in that area, we do quite a bit of work in the aerospace industry on things like seating and you know, and the peripherals around the aircraft: things like USBs, monitor surrounds, etcetera. Naturally the aerospace market is starting to pick back up again after COVID. During the pandemic, as you can imagine, the aerospace market was very downtrodden, and limited for us. Last year, it started to show signs of coming back, and this year it's starting to increase quite considerably. So demand for aerospace materials and applications is growing right now. That said, it's been hard work, keeping up with material price increases, and trying to manage the customer through the impact of that. 

 In recent months that does look to be stabilising a little bit, but we went through a period last year where we were getting price increases from suppliers every two weeks. And, and quite often they were they were sending materials in under order and those prices had gone up compared to the day we've placed the order, and they refuse to deliver unless you paid the additional price. So there have been some real headaches there.

DG: It sounds challenging, but you’ve weathered that particular storm, which is great. You have a toolroom too right? Tell me what you’re seeing coming through the doors there?

NP: Well we have a facility in China that makes tools and as you say, we have a UK facility that makes a lot of tooling. During the pandemic of course we saw more people trying to source British-made tools. So that was good news for us, because it meant our tool room was busy. But as we're coming out of the pandemic, more people are saying they want a hybrid approach. So they would like tools made in China, but production in the UK – and the maintenance of those tools dealt with here. So there is some drift, but we’re also retaining some of that business here in the UK. And at WSM, we are lucky that we have some extremely talented toolmakers, some of the best in the country, and they can make some really quite exquisite tooling. 

Which is great, because we like the more specialist plastic mouldings where a complicated tool is required. So while we’re seeing a trend again towards part sourcing the tool from China, we’re also seeing more interest in using British engineering to solve problems and improve quality.

DG: Let’s talk about Interplas now. What are you hoping to talk to customers about during the three days in Birmingham, and why is it important for UK moulders to exhibit?

NP: It's a platform for all the plastic manufacturers, so you get to see what your competition are up to, and understand what trends they’re seeing. The primary thing, however, is an exercise in sourcing new business. We do want to become a more global company, which would give us a competitive edge in the UK, so we want to meet other global businesses. And we also want to meet aspiring start-ups who have secured funding for new products. We’re very keen to be there at the beginning of their journey and lend our support and technical knowledge in both plastics and toolings.

DG: We’ve talked about supply chain challenges. Now we’re facing a new obstacle, with energy prices being what they are. Has it given you an opportunity to look at your processes in house? A lot moulders are making changes, whether that be through capital investment, or through process changes, or even behaviour changes in house. Have you been able to do anything like that?

NP: Absolutely, we’re continually looking at how we make things and how we can make them and more makethem more cost effective for our customer. And internally, we have a team that are almost entirely focused on that as a, as a project to try and try and see how we can improve in areas that means that those increased costs, we can offset by being better at what we do. Part of that process involves us reviewing what we're doing. We're

looking at all sorts of things like recycling our waste, but more than that, we’re exploring options to offer our customers return services, for instance. That’s all a work in progress at the moment, but they're all opportunities that we're looking at in a way that does justice to the cause, and makes a positive impact.

DG: Finally, what about incorporating recycled materials? Is that something that you're seeing more demand for? And is it something that you can cater to?

NP: That’s a good question. A lot of what we do, because the use more complex materials, they can sometimes be less recyclable than perhaps off-the-shelf, standard materials. But at the same time, those components don’t tend to be the things that end up in landfills and waste streams. They’re specialist plastics with an extremely long lifespan, destined to be used over many years. I have to say, in the most part, the majority of plastic is now recyclable. And for me, it feels like it's an education thing as much as anything else. Let's stop talking about how bad plastics are for the environment, because in actual fact, most plastics are highly recyclable and highly productive in the functions they’re used for.

So let's just educate people not to just chuck these things into landfill, let's make it clear that these products can be recycled, and they can be reused and upcycled as well.

And perhaps, this focus on plastics being terrible is more down to our need to just throw something away rather than think about what we can do with it afterwards. We're very conscious of as a business that we recommend recycled and recyclable materials wherever we can.

We find that new start-up businesses are very keen on incorporating those things. Top of their list is always “let's use recycled and recyclable materials in the products were proposing to make in order to safeguard the future generations”. We're on board with that fully. And we're very, very keen to recommend those things wherever we can and work with businesses to try and help reduce those carbon footprints.