Angela Doran, Sales Advisor at Woods Packaging, reflects on their recent anniversary year while also celebrating another milestone, being named as an industry award winner.
It’s been a busy couple of years for Woods Packaging, and there’s no sign of the company slowing any time soon. Last year, Woods Packaging reached its 30th anniversary milestone, while a year earlier the business had moved into its new premises after acquiring their own purpose-built site in South Kirkby, West Yorkshire. And the milestones have continued into 2023, with the business being named ‘Best Supplier for Packaging Products (wrapping)’ in the Big Furniture Awards, as voted by the industry.
But before we get into the celebrations, Angela shared an insight into the company: “Wood’s Packaging started as a small family run business in 1992 by Mike & Tony Wood and has since grown to be one of the UK’s leading suppliers of packaging. We specialise in furniture packaging and our customers range from manufacturers and retailers to removal firms all over the UK & Ireland. Over the years, we’ve relocated several times as we’ve outgrown our premises.
“More recently, in September 2021 we bought our very own, purpose-built premises in South Kirkby, West Yorkshire. It means we now have 20,000 square feet of warehousing and office space available to stock the variety of packaging products our customers trust us to supply. We celebrated our 30 years of trading in 2022 with an all-expenses paid day out at Doncaster Races, sponsoring a horse race and presenting the winning jockey with their trophy. Management along with the warehouse, sales & accounts teams really let their hair down and enjoyed the day celebrating together. It was much needed after a couple of busy years managing the pressures that Covid-19 bought along combined with the office and warehouse relocation.”
After moving into their new premises, Woods Packaging has been continuously investing in the property, as well as other areas of the business, to maintain its growth strategy, while also playing their part in being more sustainable. “We’ve recently installed solar panels on our roof which will help to reduce our carbon footprint along with reducing operating costs which means lower prices for our customers,” Angela revealed. “We’ve also upgraded our delivery vehicles to give us an increased load capacity along with improved fuel efficiency when we’re delivering to our customers in London, Lancashire, Scotland, and of course, Yorkshire.
“We have electric charging points in the car park for electric cars and customers visiting the site. We insist our polythene packaging products are made from recycled materials and are 100% recyclable in your everyday household recycle bins. We encourage our customers to re-use their packaging materials where possible and this led us to create our padded furniture cover range which have been extremely popular with furniture retailers and certainly drew a crowd on our stand at the January Furniture Show earlier this year. We actively look for ways to develop our packaging range whilst always considering the impact to the environment.”
On the topic of JFS, the most recent edition was Woods Packaging’s first foray at the show, which as Angela recalls, was a special experience for the company. “In January, we exhibited at the January Furniture Show at the NEC, Birmingham, for the very first time. It was such a great experience for us for a number or reasons. Firstly, we had the pleasure of meeting lots of new customers face to face. We found talking to them and learning about their business helped us to understand their packaging needs as well as enabling us to make suggestions for more cost-effective ways of packaging their goods.
“Secondly, we got to see many existing customers in all their glory with their wonderful stands and exhibitions as well as those who were attending the show as day guests. We had lots of existing customers stop by our stand to wish us well for our first show. Some of which were surprised we had not exhibited before as we were so well known and respected in the industry. We learnt a lot from our first time exhibiting and we look forward to JFS 2024 where we will be again, in the exact same spot in Hall 5.
“We plan to continue to source quality packaging products at competitive prices while keeping our customer base happy whilst keeping an eye open to look out for opportunities to make packaging friendlier on the environment.”
The business has continued to go from strength-to-strength, and they were duly recognised with their achievements and efforts by winning the accolade as mentioned earlier. Angela said that the award win is a “proud moment” for the company. “We’ve always felt as though we look after our customers, however this award is fantastic recognition that we’ve never had on this scale before. The whole company is very proud and extremely pleased to win. Our certificate and trophy are in our reception hall in pride of place for all visitors to see.
“We’re delighted our customers took the time to nominate us for the award. The furniture team consists of myself, Jane & Richard, and with our friendly approach to sales and customer service, this helps maintain a close business relationship with all our customers. We work very hard to ensure our customers continue to be happy with the excellent service we provide along with the quality of the packaging we supply. Our customers range from market leading high street furniture retailers with stores all over the UK to small independent furniture stores. Every single one of them are important to us and we want to say a big “Thank-You” if you recommended us for the award. We’re ecstatic we can now say we’re an “Award Winning” packaging supplier.”
Looking ahead, Woods Packaging has just launched its Tik-Tok social channel to give customers a ‘behind the scenes’ look into the business, while Angela added that the company works hard to stay connected with customers, both new and old. “Wood’s Packaging and the team are available on all social media outlets and welcome invitations to follow or connect from any new or existing customers. We hope to be as accessible to our customers as possible and our customers can continue to get in touch the traditional way by calling or emailing us too.”
