Who we are?
Starting out as five ex-BP Chemicals employees back in 2002 to what is now a constant expanding diverse team of forty in 2022. Over the past 20 years Impact Solutions has tackled many challenges, and experienced many exceedingly successful moments. But the key to Impact’s success and growth remains the same, teamwork. Teams of knowledgeable and supportive people who believe in Impact Solutions purpose to push through challenges with determination. From our meticulous chemists, our precise engineers, our hard-working technicians and our business-centric leaders – our teams are what drive our independent laboratory and innovation centre to be a service of the highest quality within the UK’s materials testing industry.
What’s changed?
A lot has changed over the past 20 years. From our number of clients, service offerings and our brand identity. We started out with a handful of clients that’s grown to over 2000 – working with local, multinational and multi-conglomerate customers. Our capabilities have also grown, from originally testing pipes and containers, to now offering accelerated weathering, full material characterisation and analysis to product testing and biodegradation. Over the years our brand image has had to keep up with our growth to align with what we offer as a company. What started out as IMPACT Laboratories, the acronym for (Independent material pipe and container testing) later becoming Impact Solutions in 2008. Below is the transition of our branded logo over the past 20 years!
Major developments
Over the years, Impact Solutions have made some major developments. From working out of a BP complex, to a small industrial unit in Grangemouth to what is now our own 27,500sqft facility nestled in a leafy backdrop with vast growth potential.
This journey has seen technologies such as our B.O.S.S technology move from concept through to having its very own commercial plant in 2017 now operating under its own identity of Impact Recycling. Fast forward 3 years and another ground breaking technology spun out of our innovation centre called ReVentas now in its pilot plant phase preparing for commercialisation.
Over the years R&D has been at the heart of what we do, with some of our people leading us to inspiring ground breaking ideas. This great strength is what expanded impact from being a testing laboratory to also an innovation centre in2018. Our innovations department has driven projects such as ‘dissolvable wet wipes, vehicle check points for the military, rugby head guards, new biodegradable tree guards – with more recent projects honing in on the biotech sector.
After many patents and a melting pot of knowledge from our people we now position ourselves to be on the route to becoming an RTO (research and technology Organisation).
What our people thought over the years
Three of the original members of Impact Solutions when it first began still remain with us today. Les our founding member continues to provide his expertise in his field and as a long-standing respected individual within the plastics industry. We asked Les to say a few words about his journey over the years;
Impact has been on a great journey since its start-up with the famous five. A bit of a roller coaster now and again, especially in the first few years when the founding Directors were literally learning the skills of business as we went along. There have been a lot of changes along the way, and I suppose that has been one of the strengths of Impact as it has developed, to be flexible in what we offered and not to be too risk averse as we entered new areas.
Of the five that set off, three of us remain; Fiona, Gregg and I. Along the way we picked up Andy Burns and Kevin our MD and Steve and Tom who together with Gregg form the Board of Directors. As a result of Steve and Tom’s vision Impact now has an innovations arm taking the company into unimagined innovative areas from our humble beginnings as a test lab.
Nothing could have been achieved, however, without the support of the staff, past and present, who have been great to work with. Their enthusiasm and drive have enabled the company to reach the stage where we have been able to move into a super new building and have contributed so significantly to the successful exciting projects that we now have and the positive outlook for the future.
As they say from little acorn… Thank you everyone!
Gregg, our Technical Director, was 21 when he joined us, this is what he has to say about his time with Impact over the years;
I joined Impact at the very start in October 2002 having worked for BP Chemicals for 4 years. When we started, we were a very small team of 5 which included the 3 founding directors and we had a very small service offering as well as client base as all clients were ex-BP. Back then we essentially only offered UN Dangerous Goods packaging testing and hydrostatic pressure pipe testing hence the name Impact, Independent Material Pipe and Container Testing. Since then, we have diversified significantly and now offer a huge range of services to clients across the entire globe with expertise covering reactor right through to recycling and reuse. We have a facility and service offering that clients are continually blown away by whether they have seen our previous premises or not, even just this morning I was showing a potential new packaging client around and they were astounded at the sheer scale of the building and everything that we cover under one roof. The building and the people that we have has put us in a great position to grow further over the next 20 years – so thank you all for the part you have played, no matter how big or small.
I am proud to say that I have been with Impact in every step of our journey to where we are now. From building new testing facilities, extending our scope of accreditation and moving premises not once but twice. For me this is a job that I love and I get up every morning looking forward to the day ahead.
Fiona, our HR & Admin Manager is proud of how Impact has grown over the years, we asked Fiona to say a few words about her journey;
What a journey it has been with Impact which I am very proud to have been a part of right from the very start. From joining as an Administration Assistant to becoming Office Manager and now pursuing my new role in HR the opportunities, skills and experience I have gained have been phenomenal. From the original 5 to nearly 50 employees, it was amazing to have been on this journey and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to be part of it all.
As Impact Solutions grow within our new complex and develop new areas of the business, we are excited to see what opportunities will come over the next 20 years and where the future will take us and our people.
