Macfarlane Group PLC

Macfarlane keeps other companies' products intact between the factory and the customer. It designs, manufactures and distributes protective packaging to more than 20,000 customers across the UK and Europe, in sectors ranging from e-commerce retail and logistics to aerospace, defence, medical equipment and food.

The distribution business is the larger of two arms. It holds stock locally across a network of regional distribution centres in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Germany, and supplies on a just-in-time basis from a range drawn from more than a thousand suppliers. Because it isn't tied to a single manufacturer, it can advise on specification independently — its sales approach is built around reducing a customer's total cost of packing rather than the unit price of the box, taking in transport, warehousing, damages, returns and packing-line productivity.

The manufacturing arm comprises design and manufacture units producing bespoke protective packaging in corrugate, timber and foam, plus specialist cases, for customers moving high-value or fragile goods. It sells directly and through the distribution network, which is its largest single customer, and is supported by Innovation Labs at Milton Keynes and Heywood where customers' packing problems are designed and tested.

The Group has grown substantially by acquisition and employs over 1,000 people. It is headquartered in Glasgow, registered in Scotland, and listed on the London Stock Exchange, holding the LSE's Green Economy Mark.