Exaclair wins multi-million pound filing contract from global giant

ExaClair Limited – the book, pad and filing manufacturer and distributor – has won a multi-million pound contract to supply a major international and UK re-seller with a range of stationery products both in the UK and Europe over the next two years.

The contract – estimated to be worth in excess of £2 million to the UK business – is part of a much larger c£8 million pan-European contract spread across other parts of ExaClair’s French parent company, the Exacompta Clairefontaine Group. It will include the manufacture and supply of both own label and branded products, including ExaClair’s hugely successful Guildhall range.

To coincide with the new order, manufacturing capacity has also been further increased at the company’s Kings Lynn site with the order of c£600,000 worth of new specialist machinery that is due for installation in November, and said to be more than four times faster than the existing line.

Mark Daisley, ExaClair’s Managing Director, says that the new contract is a testament to the quality of ExaClair’s range and its manufacturing expertise: “This is real evidence of a responsible, partnership-led approach to business where we are working closely with our customers to deliver the ranges of products that they demand,” he says.

The contract means that the firm has not only been able to secure the future of existing workers at the Oldmedow Road production facility, but has also led to the employment of a further 20 staff across three shifts to service demand. Mark says that in a difficult business environment, ExaClair is bucking the trend: “It is unusual today for any UK manufacturing plant to say that it has hopefully secured the jobs of its employees for the foreseeable future, and even more unusual to say that it has taken on more staff and is planning to expand,” he says. “Happily, we are in that position.”

ExaClair, which now employs almost 100 staff, has increased its turnover from £10 million last year to £12 million this year, and anticipates further growth in 2013’s figures. As well as securing this pan-European contract, it has also added a further £775,000 of additional new business for a number of other well-established UK-based office products re-sellers.

The company is now working on a programme of future capital investment to allow for further growth, having recently doubled its capacity in certain product categories: in the filing category alone it can now manufacture more than 125 million pieces every year.

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