Royal honour for Wellingborough plastic screens maker

Wellingborough-made protection screens at use in Windsor Castle.

Advent Plastic, in Finedon Road Industrial Estate, was called on to fit plastic protection screens to the entire visitor accessible areas at the historic royal residence.

Derek Hornbuckle, managing director of the 60-year-old firm, said: “It has to be our most prestigious order to date.”

The honour is also one contract among many for the company during a surge in demand for its products following the outbreak of the pandemic and the need for all public places to install screens to protect visitors and staff.

The firm’s team of six has designed, manufactured and fitted out the transport offices and canteen at the Morrisons distribution centre in Burton Latimer.

And one challenging project was safely working around people and staff to install five-metre long screens at Kettering General Hospital’s Records Office and the Micro Biology department.

The signmaker and plastics manufacturer says its success is due to its foresight to predict the demand for plastic screening.

Mr Hornbuckle said: “We were manufacturing one or two shop signs a day.

“We’ve since adjusted the workshop to accommodate the equipment that has allowed us to produce more than 2,000 screens since March.”

He said: “Our regular work as sign makers dried up, and because the demand for screens started taking off in March the supply of material dried up almost immediately.

“Having anticipated this, word quickly spread that we had stock of material and the orders starting rolling in – mostly by word of mouth.”

“Having the foresight to prepare and adapt the business to cope with what materialised as a huge surge in demand for protection has enabled us to tick over and essentially keep everyone employed.

Derek added: “We have processed 20 times more material than we usually do in the same period.

“We have made regular screens in the past for petrol stations, banks and post offices, that kind of thing, but nothing we have seen on this scale.

“We received a whole host of requests from shops, takeaways, restaurants, trade counters, schools, colleges and Company reception areas to supply both screens and social distancing floor signage.”