How the Project Began
The collaboration between Carbery Plastics and EPS on the Multiboost range of water boosting systems began in 2009. EPS was aware of Carbery Plastics through their oil tanks which were almost standard issue in homes and businesses right across the country. We reached out to them to explore the option of establishing a working relationship with them to design and manufacture the tanks locally, reducing our carbon footprint and utilising local knowledge in the process.
Before this, EPS were importing a storage and boosting product from Italy and wanted to replace this model with a locally manufactured product to reduce carbon, lower costs and waste as well as facilitate the flexibility to design and develop a wider range offering which it was felt would be much easier to do locally. This move also coincided with the roll out of EPS’ Sustainability Strategy 2010 – 2015 across their business.
From an early stage, EPS had identified the potential to expand the Multiboost offering beyond one or two tanks and it was felt that a workable collaborative process with a suitable manufacturer would be preferable to develop the range further, if possible, with a local company who could understand exactly what EPS was trying to achieve.
How Carbery Plastic & EPS Worked on the Project Together
As both EPS and Carbery Plastics are family businesses, they had a good understanding of each other’s perspective, with both companies keeping the end user in mind, while producing an excellent product, backed up by the best after sales service possible and both were willing to experiment to find the best way to deliver these criteria.
EPS’ Product Manager Anthony McCarthy says, “From the very beginning, we were on first name terms with the Carbery team, Sean, Seamus, Jo and Cal who were always contactable, responsive and open to new ideas, which made the process a lot more straightforward for all involved”
How Carbery Plastic Made the Process Simple
Through an extensive planning process, both companies came to understand the concept, the benefits to the end user,
Carbery added value to the concept and delivered the end result to both company’s satisfaction.
What Obstacles Were Overcome
“Trust and understanding were huge factors in the early days of the collaborative process”, says Anthony. “By now, Carbery Plastics understood our concept, but still there was quite a lot of trial and error before we reached a satisfactory conclusion on our first tank. Carbery Plastics undertook what could be considered to be quite a financial risk at the beginning but this clearly paid off and showed that they were willing to support us in our aim of developing an expandable range of products”.
How the Partnership has Grown From Strength to Strength
The partnership began in 2009 with just two tank options. The Multiboost range currently stands at 14 product options – and growing! Over that period, our collaborative process has become much more streamlined with new product innovation at the forefront, and fresh concepts coming from both sides. The success of the Multiboost range has also resulted in job creation both in Carbery Plastics and EPS, while the collaboration has now extended outside that range with Carbery Plastics also manufacturing Integrated UV Boards, Chemical Dosing Tanks, Cabinet Water Softeners as well as other products for the wider EPS group and our partners.
The collaboration has since expanded further to include EPS’ WashStation and SaniStation product ranges, the company’s response to the requirement for increased handwashing facilities to combat the spread of COVID-19. This was a massive challenge but was a testament to the working relationship & partnership between the two companies to move from concept to design, manufacture of a prototype and to bring a finished product to market within 2 weeks – delivered by both teams together, remotely via online meetings.
