Wiltshire foam packaging manufacturer wins major NHS visor contract
Foam packaging manufacturing company, GWP Protective, has won a contract to assist in the manufacture of face visors for supply into the NHS.
The firm, which has its headquarters in Swindon with a base in Salisbury, is teaming up with one of its existing customers to supply a total of 5.5 million visors over the next 26 weeks.
Richard Coombes, General Manager at GWP Protective, said: “When we were approached about manufacturing the foam elements of the face visors, we knew this was a great opportunity to help the NHS in their fight against Coronavirus.”
He added: “We have been supporting a number of customers that operate in critical industries such as medical, health care and pharmaceutical throughout the pandemic. But manufacturing the visors has meant we are now considerably busier than we would have anticipated at this point.”
The company, which used to be known as Eastman Packaging before rebranding as GWP Protective, has already supplied around half a million cut foam pads and is also supplying various foam sheets.
Although GWP typically produces foam inserts for protective packaging products, this isn’t the first time they have been involved in the manufacture of face visors for health care workers.
Back in April, at the height of the outbreak, they worked with Gloucester based engineering business Orthotropic to produce and then donate more than 500 visors to local health care workers.
Ruth Cook, Managing Director of the GWP Group, said: “We’ve had the opportunity to assist in a number of areas that we wouldn’t normally be involved with during the pandemic, including these visors and also manufacturing safety screens to allow employees to return to work in specific industries.
“We are proud that we have been able to play a small part in the fight against the virus, whilst maintaining the highest levels of service for our customers too.”
With a turnover of around £12 million, GWP Group – of which GWP Protective is one of five divisions – employs more than 100 people across its two sites in Wiltshire, manufacturing a wide range of packaging products. It is celebrating thirty years in business next month.
The Group is made up of five divisions and manufactures all forms of industrial packaging.
