Only one decade young, and so grown up already! It was 21st September 2005 when 3 guys registered the name and company SK Direct (UK) Ltd, (purposely referring to our main supplier Seal King). Armed with nothing but a wealth of experience in the global market of industrial self-adhesive materials and converting, the sole aim was to offer high quality industrial tapes with excellent customer service and reliability.
Over the 10 years it has not always been easy. We lost our partner and tape industry legend Nick Reynolds to a long battle with cancer. Nick spent a lifetime career travelling the world, connecting together all the major manufacturers and distributors. On his travels he made many friends and acquired an encyclopaedia of tape industry knowledge, which he was never too tired to share (whether you wanted to listen or not). Nick will never cease to be an inspiration to us.
Then whilst still based at RAW in Cannock we lost our stock and office in a huge blaze on bonfire night. No-one was hurt and having to rebuild the operation motivated us to aim higher. We moved into our own premises and soon after acquired our first converting machine, a Cevenini lathe-slitter.
Having survived the worst of the recession we grew out of our premises and moved to new-built unit in Norton Canes, at the same time installing a new duplex Slitter/Rewinder. We are still in the same premises now but have expanded it to allow for further growth. Earlier this year we added a slitter/spooler, as well as a rotary die-cutting machine to the arsenal. Recently we even ordered a second lathe-slitter, in order to maintain quick response times. With the machines of course our team has grown too, in numbers as well as ability.
The industry and the requirements of our customers will never stop evolving, and therefor so will we… Onwards & upwards as they say
