1963 Talbot Street
3 Storey House
Ken Wilkins started as a commercial artist and rented one room on the top floor as Ken Wilkins Design Associates, he could not afford the rent, so shared the room with another artist by the name of Doug Wragge.
Ken was 37 and his son André joined him part time, aged 17.
-Ken Wilkins
1965 Regent Street
3 Storey House
Top floor again but two rooms this time and no other designer. Father designed exhibition stands and leaflets, I still had tow jobs and Helped Dad by farming out screen printing. Decided I could do it & got a book from the library and built my own kit. Had to run printing after hours not to disturb the solicitors below.
-André Wilkins
1966 Burns Street
6 rooms this time and the first printing press. A Heidelberg KORD one colour installed in the front room on a wooden floor, crawling underneath baulks of timber gave support at crucial points. The machine installation guy was surprised to say the least! André was joined by his wife Ann Wilkins in 1966
-André & Ann Wilkins
1972 Private Road No.8
Small custom build 5,000 sq ft unit
This was a major step from private houses to a custom-built new factory, we started with the one Heidelberg from
Burns Street and a hand fed platen which looked very lonely
in the factory area!
To Pay for the overheads, more machine were added and a big push for new business, but we were on the way – much hard work, but exciting times from a very low base.
-André Wilkins
1980 Private Road No.1
Land was acquired at Private Road No.1, we initially built a warehouse and then designed a custom-built factory specifically to cater for the increasing potential for us in the food packaging sector. In consultation with retailers and food packers, the factory was designed to encompass health and hygiene requirements. This was Phase 1 of initially a 2 Phase – now 3 Phase major investment programme.
-André Wilkins
1991 Phase 1 - Private Road No.1
This first Phase was completed in 1991 & was predominately to house the companies finishing plant and finished goods warehouse. At this stage the printing and offices continued to operate at Private Road No.8.
-André Wilkins
1993 Unfortunately Ken Passed Away
Ken & André worked together for over 30 years, so it was a very sad time for all the family. At least Ken saw the first phase operational on the Road No.1 Site.
1999 Sri Lanka
This was the first foray into offshore manufacturing and has been operational for 20 years. Initially a joint venture and subsequently taken fully into Group Ownership in 2015. A green field ‘state of the art’ factory was built and is now the Group’s Asia hub with full manufacturing capability.
-Yasantha Suriyapperuma – Wilkins Asia
2000 Phase 2 - Private Road No.1
It was time for another major leap forward to consolidate all the manufacturing on one site and complete the phase 1 and 2 factory design. It necessitated moving all the presses and offices to this new facility which for the whole team was a massive effort whist still keeping customers supplied.
The decision was taken to purchase 2 Komori presses to enable a smooth transition from the Private Road No8 site and set up what became known in the trade as print room 2000 it represented a total investment in building and machines in excess of £6M and enabled a smooth transition for customers.
-Aron Wilkins
2004 Arden House Warehouse & Distribution Centre
Following the successful commissioning of the new factory in 2000 we experienced a significant upturn in sales and a warehouse was purchased five minutes away on the estate for storage and distribution this gave room for production expansion in the main factory and subsequently a large extension was built at Arden House resulting in a total of 78,000sqft.
-André Wilkins
2013 50 Years!
A landmark year that saw The Wilkins Group celebrate its 50th anniversary, celebrating half a century of spectacular growth, innovation, and unprecedented customer service across the industry.
2022 Phase 3 - Road No.1
Following the Arden House acquisition the next 7 years saw consolidation and more significant growth with many valued customers trusting us with more of their packaging.
Then followed the purchase of 3 acres of land behind the existing factory which enabled commencement of the planning of phase 3 which gave us 45,000sqft of extra factory with a very large yardage for more efficient operations.
The planning started in 2020 but with the Covid pandemic it has taken until today to complete.
It’s a testament to all the colleagues in the business to successfully build and commission this major milestone in the growth of The Wilkins Group.
-Justin Wilkins
UK HQ
The Wilkins Building
Private Road Number One. Colwick Ind Est
Nottingham. NG4 2JQ
+44(0)115 989 6000