Staffordshire-based Mercian Labels recently celebrated its half-century by gathering employees, suppliers, customers, friends and family at its factory and offices in Burntwood. To commemorate the 50 years of successful trading, Lord Stafford unveiled a plaque.
Over the past five decades, the company has occupied five different factories, employed hundreds of people and served thousands of businesses. During that time, it has produced over 10 billion labels.
Visitors included Burntwood councillor Sue Woodward, as well as Tony Baily and Lee Elson from Synatel, who have been customers for over 30 years, and Simon Bates from the NFU, which has provided insurance to Mercian for over 20 years.
In his speech managing director Adrian Steele reminded the visitors that 50 years of successful trading is a feat that very few businesses achieve – just 1% in the UK. A cake was cut by the longest and most recently joined employees Alison Witton (25 years) and Anna Folwarska (25 days). It was noted that in total all 50 in the team share 287 years of service.
Tours of the factory followed, showcasing two recently launches initiatives for the 50th year: Mercian Zero, an environmental drive that has eliminated any waste to landfill and removed harmful solvents from the manufacturing processes, and Mercian Gold, designed to highlight the premium embellishment opportunities with which brands can add value to their product offerings.
A group of Year 10 students from the local Chase Terrace technical college had the opportunity to look around the factory to learn how manufacturing can be a rewarding and challenging career.
Today, the company employs some 50 staff and serves around 9000 business customers worldwide. In addition to its core portfolio of self-adhesive labels, it manufactures LabelLock security labels and Gammatex Gamma Irradiation indicators.
