Royal Visit to GWP Packaging’s Cricklade manufacturing facility

Vice Chairman for UK Trade and Investment his Royal Highness Prince Edward the Duke of Kent visited GWP Groups Cricklade based establishment.

After thirty years in the army the Prince became the Vice-Chairman and has since engaged on a variety of trips overseas promoting British trade and exports. He became the first member of the Royal Family to make an official business trip to China.

He has also visited Europe, the Middle East and Australia. During Margaret Thatcher’s run as Prime Minister he was actively involved in various trade phenomenon’s.

As the Duke of Kent has a keen interest in British businesses, design and technology, making his visit to GWP was an ideal combination.

GWP has invested in the bespoke technology to ensure production, warehousing and delivery are as efficient as possible.

Accompanied by the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, John Bush OBE, the Duke of Kent was shown products from the Group’s Protective and Conductive divisions before taking a tour of the packaging design room and production line.

The Duke of Kent was shown how the system tracks every order, from initial receipt, to design, manufacture and storage.

This enables the company to offer a ‘just in time’ warehousing and delivery system to its clients so that customers need to only store exactly what they need at their own premises and deliveries are automatically scheduled to happen when more is needed.

David Pedley, Chief Executive Officer at GWP Group, said;

It was an honour to have the Duke of Kent visit and to be able to show him the technology and skills we have in the Group. Manufacturing and innovation are key elements in a successful 21st economy and the Duke of Kent showed great interest in the work we do here to combine those elements and remain at the forefront of the packaging industry.

He added;

It was also a great pleasure to have the opportunity to show him some of our processes and to introduce him to some of the highly skilled and creative staff we have within the GWP Group.

Prior to his visit at GWP the Duke of Kent also visited Swindon’s Honda plant and was shown the Hydrogen re-fuelling station.

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