For the past 40 years the UK Sheet Plant Association (SPA) has helped sheet plants adopt best practice solutions when faced with threats or opportunities in business. The SPA achieves this by hosting three conferences a year and regularly launching new ‘Best Practice Initiatives’. This work rate can only be achieved with the work of a voluntary, highly-committed Committee. For many years the SPA Committee has been made up of five Members (who hold senior management roles within the sheet plant sector) plus a paid secretariat.
Part of the SPA Committee’s role is to research and recommend support resources that we believe our member companies need in order to become and continue to be excellent businesses. Once those resources are put in place in the form of initiatives, a key role of the Committee is to ensure that all existing SPA members are able to take advantage of the resources and that we do all we can to encourage new members to join the Association to reap the benefits. To this end, the SPA has taken the initiative to create a new role on the Committee for a Supplier Member to take responsibility for focussing on Membership – involving both Member Liaison and encouraging sheet plants to join the Association. Nick Geary of Bobst has taken on this role from the start of 2023.
Geary regularly meets with UK sheet plants in the course of his ‘day to day’ dealings and has long been advocating SPA membership to sheet plants who are not currently members, as he feels they will benefit from the Best Practice Initiatives and Networking opportunities the SPA offers.
