Expansion ahead for Kendon following move to Enfield

The Kendon Packaging Group Plc is poised to expand its production and distribution activity following its move to new headquarters at Enfield, Middlesex.

Since the Bank Holiday weekend, Kendon has been shifting much of its factory, warehouse and office equipment and relocating part of the transport fleet from the Bow Paper Works, Stratford to a 54,000 square foot site on the Innova Industrial Estate. Now it's business as usual.

The new facility has been designed to improve capacity and throughput. Sheeters, re-reelers and guillotines have been reinstalled to cut around 100 tonnes a week of pure and recycled Kraft, greaseproof and tissue paper to meet the specific requirements of food manufacturers, large bakery chains and other customers.

The warehouse is equipped with narrow aisle racking for 6,000 pallets----one stack higher than at Stratford so it will hold more stock. The pallets are located by JungHeinrich wire-guided fork lift trucks. Three new ones are due to come into service in June. Two dock levelling bays facilitate the loading and unloading of 20-foot and 40-foot containers. Three trucks have been added to the transport fleet.

Improved warehouse facilities, extra transport and close proximity to the M25 provide speed and volume advantages in delivering imported products and finished goods to customers and raw materials to other Kendon Packaging sites around the country.

After 75 years in and around Stratford and 25 years of operating from the Bow Paper Works factory and warehouse in Bridgewater Road, the Kendon Group has had to leave the area. The five-acre site has been compulsorily purchased by the London Development Agency as it is required for the 2012 Olympic Games.

All but a handful of the Bow Paper Works' 60 employees have moved to Enfield. These comprise skilled machinists and factory staff, warehouse employees, including fork lift truck drivers, and sales and office staff.

"It is very gratifying that so many have come with us to Enfield," says Managing Director Alistair Kendon. "We would have been quite happy to stay in Stratford and improve our operation on the present site as our links with the area go back a long way.

However, this was not an option so we've had to move to Enfield. Our current staff will continue to play a key role in our business while we have already advertised for more staff in Enfield with a view to expanding product range and output."

The business was started at a site in Bow by Leslie Kendon in 1933 and expanded in various premises in the area before settling at Bridgewater Road in 1983. His sons, Alistair and Edwin, have been with the business since 1961 and 1970 respectively while sales office manager Frazer Kendon, Alistair's son, came on board in 2000.

The Kendon Packaging Group has expanded considerably in the UK in recent years, largely by acquisition. It includes Kendon Packaging (Midland) in Nottingham and Dewsbury; Portland Poly-Bag Supplies, also in Nottingham; Kendon Rope & Twine in Wakefield; Harver Packaging and T Y Nuttall in Manchester; and Ingham Paper & Packaging which is now run from Enfield. About 200 people are employed across the group in manufacturing, converting and distributing packaging materials. Products include papers, cartons, polythene bags, rope and twine. Group turnover is around £24 million per annum.

"Coming to Enfield involves a substantial investment for our group," adds Mr. Kendon. "Transferring what we have been doing at Stratford to Enfield amounted pretty much to a straight swap. However, our other sites and our customers will benefit because of the proximity of the M25, which will offer us considerable advantages in transportation.

"Of course, there are regrets about leaving the Stratford area where we have been doing business for three quarters of a century. But Enfield offers us the opportunity to take the group forward----and that's very much what we're looking for right now."

Note to editors:

Photographs to accompany this release can be downloaded from http://www.dunelmpr.co.uk/Misc-Photos-NEW.html. The caption for the photographs read:

"Sales Office Manager Frazer Kendon (left) and Managing Director Alistair Kendon contemplate their new packaging operation at Enfield"

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