24th April 2024
A group of 19 of us, including one of the founding members of the company -Maurice Bacon, were given a tour of the works by his son Richard and 2 members of the team. Maurice retired from the business and hadn’t returned for twelve years so was impressed to see the latest developments.
Sherwood have had to move with the times and change direction into mainly printing food packaging and greetings cards.
The modern computerised technology is quite amazing with robots doing the work of humans at a much reduced cost. Watching the machines was fascinating and mind boggling – the speed and accuracy was wonderful. Colours in Nottingham can be adjusted instantly to match their counterparts in China. Before you think ‘cheap labour in China’ – Sherwood built a factory with employee accommodation on site and they pay enough for workers to buy their own house within a few years.
They have won many awards over the years, not only for their products but their green approach to production. Nothing goes to landfill, everything is recycled, glitter for the cards is produced from eucalyptus (goodness knows how !)
Having thanked Richard and his team for their time and explanation of the processes, we received a reply to say the employees were impressed with our interest in Sherwood!
In case anyone is interested, our son in law, Jeremy is the CEO, his brother Richard is Managing Director and their sister Sarah is HR/Finance. Strangely enough, they still get on well after so many years working together.
Words: Carol & David Wood
Picture: Thanks to Martin Woodward & Sherwood Press