The wide-ranging survey, covering the whole UK plastics sector, also looked into areas such as profitability, exports and skills needs. A total of 100 companies participated and it asked how they saw 2013 shaping up.
According to the BPF, 23% of companies were having difficulty recruiting staff with packaging and roto-moulding firms having particular difficulties in hiring technical managers. A total of 64% had no difficulty while 13% were not recruiting.
“With packaging companies particularly having difficulty getting technical managers, this is an area that needs to be galvanised urgently,” said BPF director general Peter Davis. “We need to work with agencies to make sure we are pushing through in these areas.”
The BPF also found that packaging firms and moulders were also planning no increases in staff or were looking at reducing their workforce. Overall, 22% were planning to reduce staff in 2013 and is a large increase on the BPF’s two previous surveys, which had the figure at 12%.
In 2013, 37% of companies surveyed said that they would employ apprentices, a total of 110. From that figure, 35 would be hired by packaging firms.
In total, 47% expected no change in their staffing level while 31% were planning to increase staff.
On profitability, 45% believe there will be no change in 2013 while 36% were expecting profits to rise. A total of 19% expected profit margin to decrease. According to the BPF’s Davis, this figure is “significantly up” from the June survey where 7% expected a decrease.
In sales, 55% of plastic firms surveyed were forecasting a rise in turnover with recyclers among those most optimistic. 30% of respondents expected no change while 15% were predicting a decrease, with reasons including challenging economic conditions and high raw material prices.
