Rachel Cooper meets Russell Livesey, managing director of masterbatch producer, Colloids

WHEN Russell Livesey left school at the age of 16, he just wanted to do something with cars.

“I was planning to do my A-Levels,” said the managing director of Knowsley-based company, Colloids, which produces masterbatches – concentrates of colour for the plastics industry .

“But when the chance to do an apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce, in Crewe, came up, because of the brand, I couldn’t pass it up.”

Four years later, and with a Rolls-Royce apprenticeship under his belt, he looked set for a career in automobiles.

But, just six months after completing his apprenticeship, he was made redundant.

“At first, I worked for a company making fire engines and ambulances, but then I went to work for Velcro, in Staffordshire,” recalled Manchester-born Livesey..

“They wanted someone with automotive experience to work on polymers, and I’ve been in polymers ever since.”

Making the move from mechanics to plastics took him across the Atlantic, spending six years working for American plastics company, Polyone.

“I spent 18 months working in Cleveland, Ohio, and also spent a considerable amount of time in Europe, looking at management, integration and standardisation of business systems,” he said.

“Having an engineering background helped because it gives you the analytical skills to look at best practice and try to parachute in the best bits.”

Mr Livesey’s global experience came in useful when he settled back in the North West three years ago to work at Colloids, where 80% of their products are exported abroad.

Colloids, part of the Tosaf group, has been in business for 40 years and now boasts a turnover of £18m.

In the 1980s, it moved from Runcorn to Knowsley industrial estate, where the company has 75 staff working in factories making black and colour products.

“Our products are sold to the plastics industry,” explained Mr Livesey.

“But they are also sold to the chemical industry, so we sell back to the people that make the plastics and they use our products to colour their plastic.”

Colloids colours can end up in products as diverse as car parts to plastic bags to gas pipes.

“Virtually everything that’s made from plastic could have one of our products in it,” he said.

However, the last six months have been tough for Colloids.

“It’s a difficult period and manufacturing is probably as difficult as it gets, but bankers might disagree,” Mr Livesey remarked.

“The main part of our black manufacturing, up until this year, was automotive, but that is, let’s say, challenging.

“Last year, we had 10 excellent months, but the last two months were more challenging because of our focus on automotive.”

According to Mr Livesey, 2009 is going to be a challenge for all companies, but then he is no stranger to a test.

Six years ago, he moved from Polyone to turn around Midlands- based company, ChemPolymer.

“The business had lost reasonable sums of money, so it was a case of stripping cost. You’ve got to make the ratios show you’re profitable,” he said.

“We sold the company at 3pm on New Year’s Eve 2004. All the stakeholders got a better-than- expected return from the sale.

“That was my biggest challenge. Others have been more evolutionary, rather than having to implement a revolution.”

Such evolution is now necessary at Colloids, explained Mr Livesey.

“We’ve had to diversify quickly.

“We’ve become more commodity-driven with our black products by producing products for the film industry, which could be used in everything from refuse sacks to silage film.

“It’s always been a company strategy to diversify and be independent of certain markets, but world dynamics meant that strategy had to be put forward. But we’d already done a lot of the research and development work.”

Research and development is central to operations at Colloids, Mr Livesey explained.

“We develop new products every day. Most of these products are a variation on a theme – a slightly different shade of red or blue, or a slightly different technical property. But we also develop new technologies.”

One of those new technologies has just been launched and is already proving popular.

“Our new brand of degradable products has been in development for the best part of 12 months,” said Mr Livesey.

“One is an additive which is put in traditional polymers, which degrades products when exposed to sunlight. It could start breaking down in six months, but most people have a three-year window.

“The other is a polymer made from starch-based products and the colourants meet all of the EU regulations for the compostable environmental standard.

“We’re one of the first in Europe to be doing that.”

Diversifying is now central to Colloid’s game plan for the next couple of years.

And Mr Livesey thinks politicians should be taking a similar approach.

“It doesn’t matter which government you’re talking about, there seems to be a lack of commitment to manufacturing. We don’t want hand-outs, we just want a level playing field, to be supported as well as the French support their manufacturing industry, or the Germans support theirs.

“There seems to be a lack of balance in our economy,” added Mr Livesey.

“We’ve had too much dependence on investment banking and the city for wealth generation. I’m not an economist but what’s probably needed is more of a portfolio approach of strength in many areas, rather than dependence on one.”

But, with or without the support of the Government, Mr Livesey is taking a positive outlook.

“I’m always looking forward to the next challenge and the next goal,” he said. “There are going to be some tough times ahead, but we want to be stronger at the end of it.”

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