Hartlepool firm helps keep car plant moving after Volvo production comes unstuck

Production at the motor company’s Gothenburg plant was halted after it ran out of a specialist adhesive used in the production of car seats.

The glue is produced by a company in Newcastle, which turned to Church Street-based international import and export specialist Origma Global Services for help.

“The factory had run out of the product and they asked us to get it out there as quickly as possible,” said Orgima’s Lyndsay Hogg.

The firm looked at various options for getting the emergency delivery to the plant as quickly as possible but it soon became obvious there was only one viable choice.

“It was about three o’clock in the afternoon that they got in touch with us and we were able to get in touch with a couple of people in turn to find out what the best thing to do was,” said Lyndsay.

Sending the adhesive overland by the usual means would have meant leaving the plant at a standstill for the best part of a week, and even a rush delivery would have taken almost two days.

The decision was taken to rush a 32-litre container of the adhesive across the North Sea by air and the firm hired a small plane to make the journey.

It took off from a small airfield in North Yorkshire and the glue was then rushed to the plant.

“If we had sent it in the usual way, it would have taken five days,” said Lyndsay.

“We could have sent it express, but it was still going to be 36 hours.

“But if we sent a plane, it was only going to take five hours to fly it there.

“So we sent a small charter plant, which left from the little Bagby airfield near Thirsk. The pilot radioed ahead and they sent a van to collect the delivery.

“We always do as much as we can to help the customer within the time scale available but this is the first time we have had to rely on a plane to get the delivery done.”

Volvo declined to comment.