IN PERSON: PAUL TAYLOR
money and buy a small-holding and I carried on covering the north of England and Scotland for Wilson Storage.
“It was around this time I also started selling shop shelving with my first order coming from JT Atkinsons. Another fast growing company at this time was called Needwoods, and SRS Storage was heavily involved with supplying them.”
However, in July 1990 Taylor returned from holiday to find Needwoods had gone into liquidation owing SRS Storage a considerable amount of money, which left him with no option but to close the business. He then established PT Storage and carried on representing Wilson Storage in the north. At that time Wilson Storage was importing baskets from Italian manufacturer Filplastic, as well as selling baskets made by another manufacturer in Halifax. Realising the potential market, the Halifax company approached Wilson Storage owner George Wilson to buy him out. Wilson agreed, but on the condition they kept employing John Jones who was now approaching retirement.
The buyout brought big changes. Firstly, the Halifax business stopped importing from Italy, instead selling only their own. They also reneged on their promise to retain Jones. Taylor then approached Jones with the idea to set up a new company, Filplastic UK, to start importing the Italian baskets back into the Britain. The new business was born.
Shift to Self-Selection With Taylor and Jones’ contacts in the builders’ merchant sector, the business hit the ground running, with the two covering sales in the north and south, respectively. A further change in the sector that helped Filplastic UK get established – the move to increasing self-selection of products.
“We were lucky to work with some rising stars in the merchants industry early on, and that really helped to make our name. Some of those businesses have since grown into household names and have stuck with us which has meant a huge amount to me.”
Customers could walk into a merchant and pick up the tools and equipment they needed, just like in any other retail outlet.
For this, they needed storage baskets, and the plastic-coated wire baskets Filplastic UK were selling fitted the bill perfectly.
“The plastic-coated baskets don’t snag clothes or worse, risk cutting skin like metal ones do,” Taylor says. “Also, they stack together when not in use so don’t take up much storage space. Builders’ merchants bought them in droves.” In the ensuing years, Filplastic built its reputation on providing the baskets and other storage solutions, as well as focusing on customer service.
In 2000 Jones decided to retire, Taylor bought him out, and decided to ramp up the racking side and chase the larger value contracts that would see the business grow. “I started taking on people who could take over the sales roles in different areas of the UK,” he says.
“As a result, we started landing bigger projects, supplying all the shop shelving and the racking for the warehouse and yard, for
June 2023
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example. That was the start of how we became what we are today.”
New product lines led to the need for new skills including design, logistics, and project management expertise. Filplastic’s ability to provide turnkey solutions, from conception through to completed project, soon came to the attention of some of the industry’s most ambitious merchants.
Taylor says: “We were lucky to work with some rising stars in the merchants industry early on, and that really helped to make our name. Some of those businesses have since grown into household names and have stuck with us through their journey and ours, which has meant a huge amount to me.”
In 2018, to mark its 25th anniversary, the business rebranded as Filstorage to better encapsulate the breadth of solutions it offers. Now, 30 years down the line, Taylor says there is still plenty to do, with continued growth firmly in his sights.
“When we started selling second hand metal cages out of a van, I could never have imagined it would lead to this. It’s been a fantastic journey but there’s still plenty to do. 30 years is young in the lifetime of a company and with some great people now on board, the future looks set for many more anniversaries to come.” BMJ
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