Every business has moments that feel particularly significant in its story.
For Nicklin, the acquisition of Geddes Packaging is one of those moments. It is an important step for the business, not only because it increases our capacity and broadens the expertise available to our customers, but because of what it says about where we are as a company and where we are going next.
Nicklin can trace its history back more than 100 years and we are now a fourth-generation family business. Throughout that time, we have had to adapt many times to changes in markets, industries, materials, customers and the wider economy.
That ability to adapt is critical for any successful business, but the last decade has probably challenged us more than any other period in our recent history.
The relocation from our long-standing home in Birmingham to Wednesbury, as a result of the HS2 scheme, was a huge disruption. It was not simply a case of moving from one site to another – we had to rebuild the physical infrastructure of the business, establish ourselves in a new location, invest in our plant and operations and, just as importantly, develop and strengthen our team.
Anyone who has been through that level of change will understand the impact it has on a business and we have worked incredibly hard to continue serving our fantastic customers properly while dealing with significant uncertainty in the background.
The conclusion of our negotiations with HS2 now gives us the ability to look forward with much greater confidence and surety. It allows us to focus fully on the next stage of Nicklin’s development, and the acquisition of Geddes Packaging is a clear reflection of that ambition.
Geddes is a business we know and respect. Like Nicklin, it is a long-established independent Midlands business with deep roots in timber and corrugated packaging. It has a skilled team, strong customer relationships and a reputation built on quality, reliability and personal service.
Bringing Geddes into The NICKLIN Group of Companies makes us a stronger and more resilient business, providing us with greater capacity while adding valuable manufacturing and sales expertise, reinforcing our position as the largest and most capable independent player in the timber and cardboard packaging sector.
We have always believed that our independence matters. The packaging sector has seen a great deal of consolidation in recent years, and customers increasingly need partners that are large enough to provide scale and capability, but still close enough to understand their business properly and provide them with the attention they both require and deserve.
We are not interested in growth for the sake of it. Our commitment is to continuous improvement, where our customers are served even more effectively and where we are able to continue to invest in both our people and our plant.
The wider economic picture remains challenging and UK manufacturing continues to operate in a high-cost environment, with pressure from energy, wages, rates, materials and wider uncertainty. Those pressures cannot be ignored, but they also cannot become an excuse to stand still.
Our view is that difficult conditions have to be embraced and the right response is to make the business stronger, more efficient and more valuable to customers.
It also means continuing to double down on sustainability and we have worked hard over many years to develop a business that is best in class when it comes to our environmental performance.
Customers want dependable, cost-effective solutions, but they also want supply chain partners who are thinking seriously about waste, efficiency, carbon and long-term responsibility.
The acquisition of Geddes gives us an even stronger platform to keep developing in all of these areas. It brings new capability into the business, strengthens our reach across the Midlands and beyond and allows us to build on the best of both companies.
Bringing two businesses together takes care and our priority is to make that transition properly, while maintaining the service standards and relationships that both businesses have worked hard to build.
After a period of major disruption and change, Nicklin is looking ahead with confidence and we are excited about what comes next. We are proud of our history, but we are equally focused on the future: investing in our business, supporting our customers and building a stronger, more sustainable independent packaging company for the years ahead.
