A DROITWICH business celebrated 25 years of trading with a visit from the MP for Mid-Worcestershire.

Big Bear Plastic Products Ltd, a privately owned British thermoforming company, is celebrating its 25-year anniversary in 2023.

Big Bear operates large moulding machines and presses, CNC and waterjet cutting, offering a full technical service from prototyping to production manufacture and assembly.

The company was recently joined by Nigel Huddleston MP, and minister of state at the department for business and trade.

Mr Huddleston addressed the entire Big Bear team, commending everybody for achieving the major milestone of 25 years.

He also acknowledged Big Bear’s status as an "important local employer", with its recent growth seeing the workforce double in size.  

Celebrations continued by recognising the company's  longest-serving employees, with certificates and gifts were awarded to those who had served the company for 15 years or more, including Dave Colley, who has been with Big Bear throughout its 25 years.

The certificates were presented by Gerald Bloom, founder and owner of Big Bear, who then cut a cake with the Big Bear 25 Years logo, alongside his daughter and managing director of Big Bear, Emma Hockley. 

Speaking about the celebrations, Emma Hockley said: “Achieving a key milestone such as this is a time for reflection on how much progress has been made, despite the many challenges along the way, and we have certainly had our fair share of those 

"More importantly though, it is a time to look to the future, so it’s fitting that on the same day as the anniversary celebrations, we took delivery of a brand-new CNC machine.”

Over the last few months, Big Bear has steadily been upgrading and replacing its machine fleet, adding a new waterjet, a large cutting robot and two new CNC machines.

A £3,000,000 investment programme over the next four years will see a completely new fleet by 2027.