Steady increase in production demand throughout 2024 and into 2025 has led Pentagon to make a notable change to their production capacity. For over 20 years the UK based Plastic Injection Moulder have operated across a two-shift pattern with the factory operating 16 hours a day but from early February capacity is being extended across 24 hours.
This is a huge milestone in their rich 53-year history of trading, the increased demand is being driven by the medical (non-clean room moulding) and aerospace sectors which continue to grow at pace. Pentagon are technical injection moulders and the components that are manufactured on site are often part of larger assemblies, and commonly from engineering grades of thermoplastics.
The business has always prided itself on the level of technical expertise that they offer customers and those who follow Pentagon’s business journey may recall the exciting news of their growing team of Setter Technicians back in 2024, undertaken to support the next step of growth for the business that we are seeing today and ensure the high standard of technical expertise across all three shifts.
The third production shift will help to ensure that high volume medical mouldings continue to meet increasing customer demand while opening capacity on larger presses for new business going forward. The shift will be overseen by one of the groups longest serving employees who has been with the organisation since infancy.
Despite this hugely positive step for Pentagon, it will not be without challenge with the imminent changes brought in by the labour government in the autumn budget and the increased operational cost of running 24 hours, therefore controlling costs will be vital moving forward.
UK Manufacturing services still feel highly under utilised although Brexit did deliver a positive wave of change in the form of re-shoring and companies and design engineers looking to source UK suppliers, there is still a way to go to ensure the longevity and continued growth of this sector.
One of the key areas is the long running issues of bridging the skills gap, of particular importance to Pentagon, the continued lack of duly experienced toolmakers and precision engineers and the difficulty of balancing apprenticeships and development with revenue producing work streams and resources.
Pentagon prides itself on offering in-house mould tool manufacture and tooling services, an offering that is not readily available from UK injection moulders, giving customers a full turnkey solution for their plastic injection moulding projects and a single point of contact for the life of their products and projects.
The group are committed to continuing to deliver exceptional service to their loyal and growing customer base and are excited to be able to offer increased production capacity going forward. If Pentagon sound like a forward-thinking organisation that you would like to work with for your plastic injection moulding requirements their team of experts looks forward to speaking with you.
