K.T.Pen & Plastic Industries

Being out here at 29, G.I.D.C. Estate means we are right in the middle of the industrial action. It’s noisy and there is always a lot of dust from the nearby units, but it suits us just fine. K.T.Pen & Plastic Industries has been operating from this spot for quite some time now. We do a mix of things, mostly focusing on plastic parts and pens. The machines run pretty much all day. Sometimes they break down and we have to spend a few hours fixing a heater or a mold, which is frustrating but it's just part of the trade. The floor is usually covered in little bits of plastic scrap that we sweep up at the end of every shift. We aren’t a huge operation, just a handful of us making sure the production stays on track. We take local orders and some from further away too. It gets hot in the summer because of the machines and the shed roof, but we have some old fans going to keep the air moving. We don't really do much advertising around here. People mostly find us through word of mouth or because they saw our sign in the estate while driving past. We just keep our heads down and work. Dealing with plastic is tricky because the prices of raw materials keep jumping around, so we have to watch that closely. It's a simple setup. We make the goods, pack them into crates, and send them off. That is about it for us.