Packaging firm GWP Group, which this year celebrates 25 years in business, has achieved annual sales of more than £10m for the first time.
The Cricklade-based firm, which manufactures a range of cardboard boxes, protective cases, inserts and packaging, has increased sales by more than 10% in each of the past two years following a significant upturn in business in 2012.
The firm, which has a sister plant in Salisbury, now employs more than 100 staff and has 500-plus customers ranging from local and regional businesses to international companies. 
The firm was set up in 1990 by five directors – four of whom are still with it today – and grew steadily, weathering two recessions in the process. But sales over the past two years have grown far more strongly.
CEO David Pedley, pictured below, said: “Not only are we celebrating 25 years in business but we are reaching that milestone at a really strong time for the company. I’m absolutely delighted that we are in this position.”
The GWP Group has five divisions – GWP Packaging, GWP Protective, GWP Correx, GWP Conductive and GWP Coatings – producing industrial packaging such as corrugated cardboard products, bespoke protective cases, foam inserts, ESD (electro static discharge) packaging and the specialist coated and reusable ‘corrugated’ polypropylene packaging Correx.
Last year it invested in a new multi-million pound joint venture with several other independent British box-makers to form CorrBoard UK, a shared corrugated sheet manufacturing business in Scunthorpe which now ensures a constant supply of good quality raw material for its partners. 
Ian Larrard, director of the Swindon & Wiltshire Initiative – part of Business West – congratulated GWP’s directors and staff.
“It’s great news when any business achieves such a milestone but coupled with their strong performance this is a real achievement. It’s testament to the hard work and dedication of all those involved.
“Back in the 1990s GWP was one of the first packaging firms to embrace inventory management and just-in-time deliveries. It’s such forward-thinking and smart initiatives like these that have made GWP Group the strong business that it is today.”
The group designs and manufactures packaging solutions for and offers packaging across the entire spectrum of packaging products.
GWP has also boosted its sales team with two new appointments. Bill Chapman joins GWP Corrugated as a sales executive having previously worked at Somerset printing inks firm Sun Chemical. Bill’s role is to increase sales of corrugated packaging products to customers across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire.
Bruce Ashton has joined GWP Protective, based in Salisbury, as a sales engineer. He is experienced in technical sales and will specialise in providing bespoke protective packaging to GWP’s industrial client base. He previously worked for plastic packaging firms George Utz and Schoeller Allibert.
