APS Closes After Almost Forty Years In The Town.
In it's hayday, Assembly and Packaging Services employed hundreds of people from all over South East Northumberland. Now it's sprawling facility on Cowley Road in the town's Blyth Industrial Estate, stands empty.
A brief statement on the APS website reads as follows
Website Announcement
Closure of Assembly and Packaging Services Ltd Blyth site (APS) – part of the Keswick Enterprises Network
With effect from the end of March 2025, APS will no longer be operating at the Cowley Road, Blyth site.
All continuing and future business activities transfer to other Keswick Enterprises Network companies: SGL Co-Packing Ltd and Spatial Global Ltd.
Not many of us wont have personally, or know someone who has worked at APS down the years.
The business was started by two local women, Judith Leighton and Margaret Watson, in a small unit in spencer court and originally assembled products such as ear muffs among other things.
Aps - the first unit in Spencer Court. Image - Google Maps.
Quickly outgrowing it's original home, the business moved to a larger unit on Cowley Road and began packing products for Wilkinson Sword which was based in Cramlington.
Other contracts quickly followed, Nike, Eveready and most importantly - Proctor & Gamble.
" I started working for APS when they had just moved into the factory at the top of Cowley Road, we had some good times back then, it was the very early 90's, long before the minimum wage. We worked on piece rate, meaning we got paid for how much work we did! Some days we made very little and other days we made way more than you could at other factories, it depended what job you were doing, so it balanced itself out.
I moved with them to the big factory which was along the road and it just exploded from there, sometimes there were twenty of us in the little factory but in the new one there was often hundreds of us. I think we all had horror stories to tell of our days there but I personally loved it. "
The company tagline was "Packing Your Reputation" With the move to it's new larger site, the directors asked the employees o come up with suggestions for a new company slogan. The credit for the new catch phrase went to Joanne Stevens.
The addition of contracts from Proctor & Gamble saw the company enter a period of explosive growth and it became clear that even larger facilities were going to be needed. APS moved to it's last location and acquired the land surrounding the building to ensure future expansion could be carried out without the need to move again.
They also opened a second unit in the nearby Blyth Industrial Estate and used the smaller facility for it's contracts for Eveready.
The new Cowley Road site was soon employing hundreds of operatives and was handling twenty million units per year. Firmly establishing themselves as one of the largest contract packing companies in the country.
They wrapped, packed, assembled and filled a huge variety of household names, from Lenor, Yorkshire Tea, Pampers, Lady Protector, Lynx, bodyShop gift sets to hampers for Ringtons, to name but a few.
Tragically, one of the the two women who founded the company Margaret Watson, died in the mid 2000's. Judith remained at the helm until she sold the business in 2020 to Keswick Enterprises.
Work from APS will be relocated to other sites owned by Keswick Enterprises.