A Kidlington-based maker of plastic components such as caps, plugs and fasteners, with UK moulding and distribution sites in Oxfordshire and customer teams in Jarrow.
Essentra Components makes small plastic parts that other manufacturers use in their products, such as caps, plugs, covers and fittings. At its Kidlington site in Oxfordshire it runs injection moulding, where melted plastic is pressed into a metal mould, and dip moulding, where a heated metal form is dipped into liquid plastic. The site has 109 injection-moulding machines and two dip-moulding machines, and produces about 17 million parts a week from over 10,000 tools and inserts, according to a site brochure. It also holds a large UK stock of over 13,000 standard products.
Kidlington is described in the company's own document as its global headquarters for Essentra Components and as one of four key manufacturing sites for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It works with many plastics, including polyethylene, PVC, nylon, polypropylene and ABS. The site also does assembly and packs small quantities for customers. We could not read a company About page, so we have no mission or values to quote.
In the UK, the Kidlington site combines manufacturing with a distribution centre, and the company's business development and customer service teams are based in Jarrow in the north east of England. The Jarrow team handles over 3,000 UK customer interactions a month and holds an ISO 9001 quality accreditation. The brochure says Kidlington employs about 300 people.
The brochure gives a picture of the working culture it wants to show. It describes a Centre of Excellence with an industry-certified injection moulding training programme and support for setter and engineering apprentices. It reports in-house reuse of over 50 tonnes of scrap PVC and low-density polyethylene in 2024, a site that runs on 100 per cent renewable electricity, and an EcoVadis gold medal in 2025. These are company claims in a promotional document and we have not independently checked them.
Jobs in a moulding and distribution business include machine setters and operators, toolmakers, process and manufacturing engineers, quality technicians, maintenance engineers, warehouse and logistics teams, customer service and sales advisers, and finance and IT staff. Setters are the skilled people who fit the moulds and tune the machines, and it is a role that combines hands-on skills with data from live monitoring systems. If you enjoy design technology, engineering or maths, plastic parts manufacturing is a good example of how everyday products are made.
Website: www.essentracomponents.com
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