1969
Plastic Shims and Gaskets Co Ltd (PSG) was born. PSG introduced
colour coded polyester film to the market to produce Shims,
Washers, Insulators & Gaskets. This simple idea to replace
the antiquated metal shims was welcomed by our customers;
this new idea dramatically reduced customers lead times, while
eliminating thickness errors due to the simplistic colour
coded system. These components were extensively used in Automotive,
Electrical and most manufacturing industries. Polyester film
was far more suitable to these applications due to its compressive
and tensile strengths. PSG now export worldwide and customers
welcome our high levels of customer service and vast knowledge
of materials and applications. PSG also acquired a number
of small tool makers and washer manufacturers to enable PSG
to hold an extensive range of tools to produce most standard
items without charging customers tooling costs, however if
it is something bespoke you require, we usually can produce
a tool within a week.
1981
Polyester Converters Ltd (PCL) was created. In the early eighties
PCL primarily procured its PET (polyester) film from Kodak
UK.
1983
PCL became a major supplier of print and allied trades and
acquired Boyden Data Paper Ltd, which was the largest polyester
film converting plant in the UK at the time. Boyden Data primarily
converted PET film for ICI into sheets and rolls. After the
acquisition, PCL was able to stock, convert and distribute
polyester film from 12-500 micron used in packaging, print,
industrial and allied trades.
1985
PCL invested heavily in modern converting machinery and became
a major converter and stockist of PET film (from several European
manufacturers) in Europe.
1987
All the associated companies were consolidated creating PSG
Group Ltd. PSG Group procured film from all of the worlds
major manufacturers of Polyester film at the time: ICI, Hoescht,
Rhone Poulenc, Kodak and many more. PSG Group occupied a refurbished
industrial unit in the heart of South East London, covering
over 40,000 square feet.
1994
Further investment into machinery and people allowed PSG Group
to provide a one-stop shop for all PET film requirements.
Present
PSG Group now stock well over 1000 tonnes of PET film from
Dupont Teijin Films, Mitsubishi Polyester Film, Toray Plastics
Europe, Toray Saehan, Nuroll, Shinkong, Jindal, Garware, Flex
and many more. PSG Group stocks not only PET films, but also
many other materials as listed on our Polyester Converters
website. PSG Group also offers a one-stop shop for all cut
components made of any material plausible as listed on our
Plastic Shims and Gaskets website. Whether you require 5 kg
or 100 tonnes of film, PCL will provide you with exceptional
technical know how and customer service. Whether you require
10 insulators of a Kapton laminate or 1,000,000 shims for
an automotive assemble PSG will do the same. PSG Group has
recently been accredited with ISO 9001:2000 which is practiced
every day in all we do.
PSG
Group is in the process of building a class 100,000 clean
room, with state of the art slitting facilities. Deacro Industries
Ltd and PSG Group have introduced entirely new slitting machines
with uncompromised quality. Throughput has increased tremendously
allowing PSG Group to offer extremely competitive prices to
our customers. PSG Group has also recently purchased a variety
of paper slitting machines that have allowed the company to
strive forward into many new markets.
Future
PSG Group are becoming stockists and converters of many other
films than PET. We have recently launched our Polymex OPP
range, with Polystyrene, Cellulose Acetate, PVC and Polyethylene
soon to follow. We encourage you to surf our site and enquire
about any of our products. We hope that like many of our customers
you appreciate qualitative products, reliably, consistently
with unrivalled levels of customer service.
Plastic Shims and Gaskets
Ltd
From
the perspective of the chairman’s daughter and current
Company Director.
1969, the year my sister Sarah and Plastic Shims and Gaskets
co. Ltd. were born (not necessarily in order of importance).
My father, Inam Gardezi, and my mother in her various roles
of production manager (Mrs Gardezi), secretary (as Mrs Kingsberry)
and accounts manager, made up the original staff of four.
The company had a very humble beginning in an old Victorian
building on Bethnal Green Road, London E2. It was also the
home of the notorious Kray brothers, whose mother lived right
behind the building.
My
father had the simple idea of using colour coded Polyester
film to replace metal shims, due to its high compressive and
tensile strength. The colour coding for different thicknesses,
as well as plastic being safer to handle was a major advantage,
especially considering the cost savings. I can only give credit
to an Actuary student (my father) who worked at a renowned
insurance company and fixed everything (including our plumbing
fixtures) with Sellotape , in his ability to pioneer such
a specialised industry.
As
the company prospered, most of our extended family were recruited
(roped in coercively during their visits) and I received my
training on a hydraulic press (in retrospect, my very junior
years meant I was probably under the recommended operating
age). Our Saturdays were spent attempting to flatten out millions
of uneven anti-friction discs for our largest account. This
took place in our home sauna, our real own sweatshop. Sundays
were dedicated to stapling mailshots together, usually until
our boredom lead to us trying to staple together various household
items and occasionally our little brother (who now, ironically,
is the Operations Director at PSG Group).
By
1987, my father had acquired a number of Companies creating
PSG Group, one of Europe’s largest converters and distributors
of Polyester film occupying over 40,000 square feet of industrial
units in South East London. The original and prestigious three-line
telephone system (or three actual telephones) is now a fully
automated customer/ planning/stock computer database and our
original but slightly controversial company logo “ ….
Where colour states your thickness” is a distant memory.
Plastic
Shims and Gaskets has always been a member of our family,
as are now the staff and managers of PSG Group. It was therefore
inevitable that I would join the company along with my brother,
Lawrence Gardezi, and our vested interest, along with that
of Charles Asprey, Group Commercial Director, is reflected
in the service and continuous investment in improvement that
we offer. The same approach and integrity is offered by Tony
Quazi, Sales Director of the Polyester Converters side of
the group.
While
the name Plastic Shims & Gaskets is self explanatory,
what it does not identify, is the diversity of components,
and the industries that we supply. In the last few years,
we have assisted designers with solutions to many new queries
relating to UL rated materials, for electrical Insulators.
Once specified, we can then cut the components from our range
of materials, with our various cutting presses.
While
everyone likes nice big orders, we do not believe in turning
away any business, and with an MOQ of £15.00 for a lot
of the materials, or some components, we feel customers get
quite a good deal. We hope the customer thinks this too. One
way or another we believe in servicing the customer to the
best of our ability, even if some enquiries stretch the imagination
and can involve sampling many material options, with no guarantee
of orders.
We
achieved our ISO 9002 accreditation a few years ago now, and
are currently moving forward to the ISO 9001: 2000 accreditation.
If only it was as easy as writing these words.
We
have a relationship (purely business) with many of the other
Gasket Cutters and component manufacturers, which helps ensure
complementary supplies to the end users. Hopefully this goes
towards achieving the aims of the GCA.
From
basements with cobwebs to our own home made web (www.psggroup.co.uk)
we like to think we have come a long way, with still a big
future ahead.
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