Major new automotive contracts have led to Stadium Plastics (GB-Hartlepool TS25 2BQ) increasing its injection moulding capacity with the addition of five machines from Toshiba with a clamp force range from 220t up to 650t. They are being installed at Stadium´s main plant in Hartlepool, bringing the total of machines there to 80. The company also has 30 injection machines at its site in Newton Abbot, Devon, and a further 25 at a plant in Hinckley, Leicestershire, where two new injection models were recently installed. Existing customers have also transferred over 100 injection moulding tools to Stadium in the past six months.

The new customers include Jaguar, MG Rover and the Visteon subsidiary of BMW. Stadium is now supplying components for every type of Jaguar being manufactured and considers it has parts on 70% of all cars produced in the UK. Automotive is a key market for the company and over the past three years it has replaced all the work it carried out for Black & Decker – now moved to China – and which accounted for 50% of its total output. It has full CAD facilities, works on a JIT basis and is fully set-up to be a leading Tier 2 supplier to car manufacturers.

Stadium Plastics underwent a management buy-in from the Stadium Group in March 2002. The acquisition, for GBP 7m, was led by Jeremy Stoke, now chairman of Stadium Plastics, and followed a year, to 31 December 2001, when the plastics business contributed operating profits of GBP 179,000 to the group´s performance. Turnover in the first 12 months as an independent company rose from GBP 25m to GBP 30m. The addition of two further injection moulding machines is in the pipeline.