About us

After leaving Proctor & Gamble, Mr. Dudley embarked on his own agenda with a view to building a strong foundation for his growing family to take over. This involved a plethora of roles; commissions for agencies, lecturing and freelance consultancy on business management.

It was an agency commission that led him to the Concertina Door sale and changed everything. A deal for 6 enormous concertina doors for the Liverpool Harbour Cranes left him £2000 in pocket.

Clayson Merchants, James Street, Garston grew from that £2000, in 1976. They began selling paper bags to the small high street stores that were prolific in that era.

By the 1980’s Clayson Merchants had expanded from paper bags into homeware. The older siblings, Gerard and Matthew joined the company as planned. Under Mr Dudley’s mantra ‘Do as you want to be done by’ the family trio focused on excellent service to grow the company.  Third son Quentin joined Plus in the 1990’s and the three ‘boys’ put in hard yards. Under the eye and experience of Mr Dudley, their enthusiasm for sales and service bought yet more growth. So much so, they purpose built a warehouse in Foundry Lane, Widnes in 1995.

By 2007 Plus Packaging was over the five-million-pound mark. Innovation and opportunity was a key part of the Claysons’ repertoire and part of this growth had been a move into underlay and flooring products, a division run by Quentin.

QA Products were born and moved to a new premises. Plus Packaging also moved sites, took over the Rum Warehouse on Gaskill Road, Speke and transformed it into the place it is today. At time of writing, the companies combined growth is five times it was then.

The 2008 recession was an incredibly tough time as consumer demand sunk dramatically.  The Plus Packaging team knew the one commodity that was always in demand – quality, personal service. This principle led to growth for the company during 2008. As Mr. Dudley stated in one of his last reports for Plus Packaging “Its policies and implementations have been stress-tested by the market trauma of 2008 – 2010, emerging intact and with some measurable degree of progress and prosperity.”

The last 10 years have bought highlights, investments and culture change.

Plus invested in Dynamics NAV, future proofing the company for years to come on a technology front. The team grew in its diversity and depth, as recruitment focused on attitude and ‘good people’ not old rules and skills.  It’s a great place to work, but challenging nonetheless.

The second and third generation of the family have studied and implemented good business principles in the same way Mr Dudley Clayson did all those years ago.  Strong management including staff from De Beers and Amazon joined the company implementing structure and control.

Our supply chain grew quickly as stakeholders appreciated the values of payment on time and honest relationships in an ever more challenging world.

Environmental focus brought new products and increased capacity to fulfil client requirements.

Plus Packaging built on a strong foundation of service, earning an ever increasing order book.

With the business now firmly in the hands of the third generation of Clayson’s, Plus Packaging has fresh impetus.  We feel that our Key Account Management, Stock and Serve and Bespoke service is needed now more than ever.

We believe we are the unrivalled option for  continuous, managed supply on demand bespoke packaging.