A PACKAGING manufacturer is set to double its turnover to �1.5m this year after a boom in demand.Beccles-based CDi Worldwide, which produces custom-built packaging machines, has seen a rapid growth in sales, particularly for equipment for cost-saving forms of packaging.

A PACKAGING manufacturer is set to double its turnover to �1.5m this year after a boom in demand.

Beccles-based CDi Worldwide, which produces custom-built packaging machines, has seen a rapid growth in sales, particularly for equipment for cost-saving forms of packaging.

The company, set up seven years ago by Al Moore, is also set to take on five additional staff this year to cope with demand after growing from four to 10 employees in the past 18 months.

As well as supplying UK companies with machines, the firm produces equipment for Smart Karton in the US, a waste-saving method of packaging in which items are strapped by film to cardboard, eliminating the need for protective fillings such as bubble-wrap or polystyrene chips.

The UK patented Smart Karton product was introduced to the US by Al Moore's colleague Andy Whiteside, where it attracted investment and is proving popular with shippers of items including books, ammunition, clothes and beauty products.

And CDi has also seen growth in the UK, with recent orders for machines to handle bags of dog biscuits, dried foods, aerosols and toiletries, and has won an order from China for two wrapping machines for the petro-chemical industry.

Sales director Ivan Reeve said: “Between us we have decades of end-of-line packaging experience as well as extensive contacts throughout the industry.

“Recent changes in the fortunes of former market leaders provide us with an opportunity to fill a gap in the market and customers are reassured and excited when we tell them who we are and what we can offer.

“We're on target to double our turnover and that means more jobs. In the last 18 months CDi Worldwide had grown its workforce from four to 10, with a further five new jobs expected to be created this year.

“We're constantly looking for ways of adding value to our machines and that's helping customers make huge saving too.”