Buying: Boxing/Martial Arts Opro barks about its bite
Mouthguard manufacturer Opro moved into new premises at the turn of the year. David Pittman went along to take a look at its new manufacturing process.
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outhguard manufacturer Opro moved into new premises in Hemel Hempstead in January after
outgrowing its previous facility in Hatfield. The facility was officially opened a few weeks ago when dignitaries from the dental, sporting and trade professions were invited for a tour of the state-of-the-art manufacturing process, on- site storage and open plan offices. The new facility was purpose-designed to suit Opro’s requirements as it is the first company to occupy the building. This gave Opro the freedom to tailor the offices and laboratory to its liking, even down to the flooring in the communal lunch area where much of the opening party took place.
From a practical point of view, the laboratory and bespoke mouthguard manufacturing line are a vast improvement on its previous facilities, Opro’s laboratory director Paul Swann said. It includes a new ventilation system that removes much more of the dust and detritus produced in the manufacturing process, greater use of natural lighting and a linear production cycle that sees the bespoke mouthguards pass through each of the necessary stages in order. Swann said the manufacturing process has been designed to be as simple as possible in order to allow it to keep up with demand. Each stage is kept to a “manageable chunk”, allowing Opro to draft in swathes of part-time workers during the busier months without the need to spend long periods of time training them up on each stage of the process.
It has a small full-time staff, but as demand can increase manufacturing to 300 mouthguards an hour during the busiest times of the year, it needs the extra hands to keep on top of orders. As an example, it plans to bring in around 120 part timers in September this year.
To counter any concerns raised by the use of part-time staff, each mouthguard is fitted with a device called a mouse at the start of the manufacturing process, which includes all the relevant data on the end user and the specification of the mouthguard. This is scanned
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at each stage of the process to allow constant data checking and provide a quality control check process.
Swann added that it is not just the manufacturing which has been improved at the new facility, as Opro has found a company that will recycle the waste plastic and other materials used to produce a mouthguard. This has drastically reduced the amount of waste it throws away, Swann said, and massively improved its environmental credentials.
Once the mouthguards are completed, Opro’s new location has the capacity to store some 100,000. It also has space to hold onto the mouthguard moulds for a year in case they are lost or damaged and a repeat order is placed. Upstairs in the main open plan offices, Opro’s owner and founder Anthony Lovat told invited guests that the company hasn’t yet finished growing. Indeed, the new offices are only half used allowing Opro to grow its office-based workforce massively in the future, should it wish. For the meantime though, Lovat said: “We have momentum so we’re looking to grow our product range and add two or three new staff before the summer.”
Opro sales director Richard Evans said growth into international markets is helping support these team additions. OPROshield, the off-the- shelf range available to retailers, can be sold in bulk to new markets, allowing Opro to open up opportunities to develop other sales avenues. Russia is one of the markets that Opro is starting to see more and more sales into. Evans said the popularity of ice hockey, mixed martial arts and other combat sports in Russia make it a very attractive market to target.
“The new facility is a statement of intent, and will allow us to expand,” Evans said. Local MP Mike Penning, a rugby and football enthusiast, was also in attendance, and said: “It is very heartening to find a company in the heart of Hemel Hempstead manufacturing in the UK and exporting on such an international scale, especially considering the current financial climate.”
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