At Cepac we're incredibly proud of our people. This is one in a series of staff focus articles where we shine a light on the many faces who make up our team.

Gareth chats about the beneftis of taking risks on people, highlights projects he's particulary proud of and notes the importance of recognition.

Can you describe your role at Cepac Rawcliffe?

My role as Design Manager at Rawcliffe is changing to become more of a technologist as we increasingly provide technical support to our customers. My day used to consist of processing customer enquiries and producing samples, now I visit our customers regularly with our external sales team. This has been an extremely positive move as we are winning an increasing number of new projects.  

A big successful project has been to develop a range of packaging for new generation central heating boilers. I attended the customer to be on hand to provide design knowledge and practical recommendations. This was a demanding brief although we were able to comply with everything that the customer was asking.

What does your typical day look like at Cepac?

Our days can be hectic, and we start first thing by reviewing priorities. We have a combination of orders and project work, meaning that there are always deadlines for couriers and customers.

We share routine orders with project work for the design team to provide a bit of variety. There are usually waves of enquiries which are seasonal and weekly, where Monday tends to be the quietest day of the week building up to a busy Friday. This is the routine of a typical designer!

What are your proudest achievements?

I was selected from the factory to become a trainee in Design and was promoted to become Design Manager within three years. The company took a chance on me, and our work has since been recognised in the form of some prestigious awards.

Recently, we have won a number of recognised awards, Innovation of the Year, which has since been followed by a gold UK Packaging award for a re-usable packaging deisign . For our team this has been a big achievement, and important recognition.   

What have been your standout events?

Our packaging for BSA air rifles has an interesting history. We produced a prototype pack as a polystyrene (e.p.s.) replacement. The potential was spotted at and developed at short notice for the launch of a new air rifle, followed by a further thirty rifles. With well positioned print upon the box this innovative packaging really stood out.

Another e.p.s. replacement was developed for the packaging of solar panels for Naked Energy. The previous packaging had neither been environmentally friendly nor provided sufficient protection.

What do Cepac do particularly well?

Cepac has a record of investment, in plant and in people.

There has been multimillion pound investment in the Rawcliffe factory which was awarded AA status by BRC last year – a really big achievement. We have just been awarded the BRGCS AA+ certification following an unannounced audit which is really something!

I feel also that Cepac has invested in me. Not forgetting that we design, and manufacture first class corrugated packaging.