Plastics & Rubber World - July/August 2019 - 29

DISTRIBUTION

of masterbatch and additive products, this
now extends to recycled polymers.
"A series of producers have been investing in recycling to support the circular economy," he explains. This includes
product from French supplier Total, which
combines post-consumer waste with virgin polymer. But the supply and quality of
those products is directly related to the
quality of the waste stream, which can
vary due to sourcing.
Boswell says the UK could overcome
this issue by implementing a national recycling network as used in various European
countries, which would improve overall
output and the underlying economic case
for recycled materials.
Simon Clegg, business development
manager at Distrupol, with headquarters
in Chertsey, Surrey, says that the company has been receiving an increasing number of customer enquiries about polymer
from recycled sources.
"We have a lot of interest in sustainable options," he says. To support that,
the polymer distributor is actively looking to expand its existing product line
of sustainable materials. But Clegg says
there are issues within some recycled
products now being oﬀered across the
wider market.
"I've worked with some of these products and you can see that it's not consistent. That unstable quality will have the
setter by the machine all day as the material comes through at one ﬂow rate, then
another," he says.
Clegg adds that Distrupol is now
speaking with a new manufacturer about
sourcing recycled polymer. "It's the highest quality I've seen," he says. "A lot of
these product types are black because
that can hide a thousand sins, but this is
white and really consistent in colour and
quality."
James Stanton, commercial manager
at Distrupol, says that in years past, customers might have been put oﬀ by the
high price of recycled products. But the
consumer push for sustainability and the
kudos which it brings to a brand has made
customers more willing to pay for these
products.
"The sorting and cleaning, it all adds up
to additional cost," he explains. "But some
companies are positioned as environmentally aware, so they need to be seen
to be supporting that eﬀort."
Another element of sustainability is the
push to eliminate some plastic packaging.
It could be thought that this would have
a knock-on eﬀect at distributors supplying
that raw polymer, but Plastribution's Mike
Boswell doesn't see the rationalisation of
packaging solutions being overly detrimental to the market.
"While the reduction in plastic packaging might have a limited inﬂuence in
Western Europe and North America, the
demand for plastics in emerging countries is increasing, so there won't be much
change in overall market volume."

But he further believes that companies should avoid knee-jerk reactions in
eliminating plastic packaging. "It's not just
about 'bad plastic'," he says. "We shouldn't
make short-sighted decisions which could
have negative environmental implications
over the longer term."
Boswell explains that while Plastribution is developing a portfolio of 'green'
polymers, with a view to extending ﬂexibility and sustainability to his customer base,
he is keen to keep an objective viewpoint.
"Recommending bio or sustainable
polymers into incorrect applications can
have knock-on eﬀects down the road for
recycling. Oxo-degradables getting into
the recycling stream can create issues, so
we'll look to oﬀer not just a good solution,
but the right solution.
"if there is a like-for-like alternative to
standard polymer which has better environmental credentials, then that should
be promoted," he says.

SPECIALITY PRODUCTS

While Plastribution and Distrupol continue to build on past success, at Polydist,
new managing director David Batchelor is
planning a root-and-branch review of the
company. "I'm trying to strip the company
back to basics to ensure it's on a concrete
foundation," he says. "From there we can
get a vision in place, then communicate
that to the team so they know where we
want to go."
While distribution is clearly a sales-oriented operation, it's important to have
the right people in place and have them
pushing for a single, common goal. "Culture is very important," adds Batchelor. "I
can train people, but I can't instil a culture
[of service] if it's not in the DNA."
Polydist has just taken on representation of thermoplastics produced by Sabic
and Batchelor thinks more of the same
will be a key element of the company
proposition. "It's something the business
was missing. I'll be looking at the range to
see where we have gaps, where we can ﬁll
those gaps. My objective is to make us a
one-stop shop, maximise value for customers."
In ﬁlling out the range, Batchelor sees
the potential to increase margins across
the business. "You have to be careful with
commodity products. When it comes to
those, from the time you buy to the time
you sell you could be losing money, the
margins are so thin. It's the specialist polymers where we can achieve improved
margins."
Specialty products are key to all distributors. Distrupol's Simon Clegg picks up
the story: "We work with a compounder in
Birmingham which delivers Distrupol Colour. It's the only product we supply which
is sold under the DIstrupol brand."
In practise, Distrupol Colour takes the
place of masterbatch, by oﬀering compounded polymer grades with integral
colour, as Clegg explains: "It might be a
little more expensive [than masterbatch],

Flexibility is top of the
pyramid when it comes
to customer focus
David Batchelor, Polydist

While supermarkets such as Waitrose
look to reduce plastic packaging,
distributors believe this will not have
a major market impact

Service can be the
diﬀerentiator
James Stanton, Distrupol

›› Continued on page 30
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