New premises Pak-ing a punch

A total of £40m has been invested in the state-of-the-art factory at Westwood Park for global wet wipe manufacturer Nice-Pak.

And as part of its expansion, the company is also set to extend and broaden its apprenticeship scheme to the new site.

In Europe, Nice-Pak produces more than 650 million packs of wet wipes annually.

It employs 900 people across three factories in Wigan, North Wales and Germany.

Construction at Westwood Park started in June 2015. Building work is nearly complete, and already, one high-tech production line has been installed and is operational.

The new building replaces the firm’s existing facility in Hindley Green, and full migration of employees and equipment will be completed by February 2017.

All 185 existing employees will be transferred to the new site. They were first to be given a tour of the site at a staff open evening held recently.

Nice-Pak has a reputation as the world’s most innovative wet wipe manufacturer.

Its products include baby wipes, cosmetic wipes, moist toilet tissue and household cleaning wipes and it manufactures for many of the world’s biggest brands and retailers.

At 400,000ft sq, the Westwood facility is the largest building in the borough of Wigan. At the peak of the build, more than 250 workers from 76 sub-contractor firms worked on site.

The site is ideally located to take advantage of the proposed new highway from central Wigan to the M6.

The development has been backed by the Regional Growth Fund and Wigan Council.

The expansion of Nice-Pak’s apprenticeship programme to include the new site will see the creation of opportunities for local people to learn and qualify in skill areas ranging from engineering and distribution to product

development.

The apprenticeship scheme is being developed with Wigan College and anyone wanting information may get in touch via the Nice-Pak website here

Nice-Pak operations director Paul Symonds, who is managing the development of the new facility, said that it would bring in a new era of wet wipe manufacture and enable Nice-Pak to improve efficiency, flexibility and capacity for customers worldwide.

“Westwood Park will be one of the leading factories of its type in the world. We’ve commissioned state-of- the-art technology in a purpose-built facility operated by our existing first class workforce.

“This means we are going to be able to continue to advance to keep ahead of our competitors and maintain our premier position in our wet wipe market sector.”