Waddington Europe

Arklow, Wicklow Co. Ireland

Set in the stunning surroundings of Co. Wicklow, Ireland colloquially known as “the Garden of Ireland” due to its dramatic scenery, our site at Arklow (formally Holfeld Plastics) was established in 1978, initially supplying foam packaging to the cosmetics industry.

During the intervening decades and the acquisition by Waddington Europe in 2014, Arklow grew to become one of the leading rigid plastics packaging manufacturers in the European market.

Arklow produces high-quality, innovative packaging products and solutions for our customers through the exploitation of an agile manufacturing operation combined with the skills of a front-line customer service team dedicated to satisfying their needs.

We enable our customers to meet their environmental commitments with high-recycled content and low carbon footprint products.

Plant Data

Square Footage: 261,360 square feet
Date Constructed: 1978
Date Novolex Acquired: 2018
Number of Machines: 5 extruders, 1 off-line slitter, 14 thermoformers
Operating Schedule: 24/5 Thermoforming 24/7 Extrusion
Number of Employees: 139
Union Status: Non-union
Certifications: BRCGS Packaging Certification AA Standard 15/09/2021

Health & Safety Overview

Across the breadth of Novolex facilities, employee safety is a top priority. Employees on the production floor and in our offices deserve and expect a safe working environment. Each year, we have implemented industry leading workplace safety policies and programs to constantly improve safety performance across the company. Safety took on new significance in 2020 as the world managed through the COVID-19 pandemic and our program continued to evolve in 2021 as we strive for zero injuries company-wide. A team of safety professionals worked closely with each facility to implement more standardisation across business units. These measures not only helped ensure compliance but also supported the plant health and safety teams with proactive initiatives, risk identification and abatement programs, and efforts that drove safety culture changes.

Food Quality Certifications

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is the UK’s food retail industry trade association, with an international Food Safety Management Systems standard, which is also one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) recognised certification schemes. The standard assesses key elements that must be in place in our organisation to ensure production of safe product. By achieving certification we are protecting our product, customers and brand, and achieving AA certification is outstanding, it means we passed with 5 or less minor non-conformances noted. We are proud to have continually achieved an AA certification each year from 2016.

Zero Waste and Innovation

Waddington Europe Arklow (Holfeld Plastics Limited) are committed to sending Zero Waste to Landfill and are dedicated to improving waste management on site.
We are manufacturing 100% PCW, (Post Consumer Waste) – Eco Blend Pura.
We recently installed new HTS heaters on one of the thermoforming machines which has saved over 30% on electricity consumption.
We convert between 250 to 300 tonnes of post-consumer washed PET bottles into alternative packaging every week.