New Sales Director, ARBURG Ltd.

It is rare that a high-technology company can secure someone with such deep experience in both technical and sales roles for a sales director’s position as Steve Thomson, who joined ARBURG Ltd. in September.

“I am delighted to join ARBURG at this exciting time. It is an ambition fulfilled to work in a director’s role for one of the leading global brands in injection moulding,” says Steve. “I plan to give everything I can to drive the UK and Ireland business forward and serve our customer base fully.”

A four-year plastics and materials apprenticeship at Hotpoint in Peterborough (where Perkins Engines had separately offered him an apprenticeship), while studying at Burton-upon-Trent Technical College, led to a BTEC HND in polymer technology – a great grounding for the career that followed. While Steve left school at 16, he warmed to learning about technical polymers and applications, and the apprenticeship was followed by a BSc in Polymer Science and Technology at Coventry University.

By the time left Hotpoint UK, Steve had overall engineering responsibility for all plastics processing on site, including sheet extrusion, thermoforming, and injection moulding. At the time Peterborough was a big manufacturing site with about 1,000 employees.

Looking to build on his knowledge of plastics, he joined a French tier one automotive supplier to help develop the instrument panel for the Rover 75, expanding his knowledge of moulding applications and gain experience in the car industry. During this time he learned more, and he worked on injection loading machines up to 3200-tonne clamping force.

As the instrument project neared its end, Steve was approached with a very enticing challenge.

“A German domestic appliance manufacturer invited me to move to Ireland to set up a brand-new injection moulding facility to support the transfer of manufacturing from Germany to Ireland. I couldn’t refuse. I led the team in building a new facility from the ground up, with 11 new IMMs and complete site engineering support to allow manufacturing to be transferred to Ireland. This tested my organisational and engineering skills.”

It was 2001 and Steve’s sights were set on being a technical manager. But sliding doors intervened.

“I was approached to be a sales manager for an ancillary equipment company, covering the UK and Ireland, based back in the UK. I knew I would learn much more about the different techniques and processes by visiting multiple companies, and it would be a great opportunity to expand my knowledge.” To ARBURG’s gain, this was to be the last time Steve held a purely technical role, and he has been in sales ever since.

After three years in ancillaries, Steve missed the technical detail of moulding where his core interest remained. He joined Canadian hot runner systems company Mold Masters, and remained there 14-years, moving up to Eastern Europe sales manager, a period he describes as a “fantastic experience”. “I learned a huge amount about mould tool design and manufacture and developed my knowledge in the entire injection moulding process.” In 2018, he began a six-year period in in the OEM medical devices industry, learning about new technologies and applications in a sector in constant growth and change. Meanwhile, the frontline of moulding industry work was calling again.

In late 2023 Steve had a serious accident while riding his bike that left him with life-changing injuries, and he no longer has the use of his right arm. After this horrible setback, he saw the vacant sales director job at ARBURG Ltd. and had the courage to apply for the position.

“I joined in September 2024, and I’m grateful that Colin and ARBURG Ltd. did not let the injury affect my appointment. Now I am thoroughly enjoying reconnecting with the industry I love.”

The moulding market is in a state of hiatus, and although aftermarket sales are very strong, investment in new machines is slow – not helped by a rise in employers’ costs from the Autumn Budget and a US election win that promotes caution for now. But managing director Colin Tirel is optimistic about the market’s recovery next year, Steve’s appointment and about opportunities in Ireland. “I am so pleased that Steve has joined ARBURG – he brings long experience and knowledge that you cannot buy and that customers love. He is a can-do moulding industry professional. Now is a sticky period but we are working on a very exciting development in Ireland, there is an Industrial Strategy that might percolate into more confidence and we have many, many new machine enquiries. I am excited for 2025.”

In his private time Steve’s passion is cars, Renault in particular, currently owning six of the French brand’s “hot” models built between 1990 and 2021 (five GT Turbo Raiders, Clio Williams, Clio 182 etc). Steve has restored many of these himself to a show standard, winning several awards, and has supported many magazines and TV programmes with when they want to cover stories on these cars.