06 Nov 2013 Polyoak’s Jeremy Macintosh named PACSA ‘Packaging Achiever’ 2013

He joins an elite band of previous recipients – the late David Brown, Piet Neethling, Peter Campbell, Gill Loubser, Trevor Evans, the late Di van Breda, Derrick Minnie, Andrew Marthinusen, Ray Crewe-Brown, Keith Pearson, the late Horst Sass and Mike Arnold.

Said the PACSA citation:

The bestowing of this accolade recognises the significant contribution that Jeremy has made to the plastics packaging sector during his 30-year involvement in the business. Alongside Henry Louw (chairman of Polyoak Packaging), Jeremy has built an admirable plastics packaging operation.

Polyoak Packaging, a privately-owned business, now employs 2 500 people nationally and is constantly creating new jobs and supporting community initiatives.

Established in 1976, Polyoak Packaging now counts as one of Southern Africa’s leading rigid plastic packaging suppliers, with various divisions specialising in thermoformed, blow-moulded, injection-moulded and compression-moulded plastics packaging for the dairy, food and beverage, and retail sectors.

A customer-focused approach combined with leading-edge designs has kept Polyoak at the top of its game.

Underlining his passion for plastics packaging, Jeremy has served for countless years on key industry bodies. For many years, he was chairman of the Plastic Convertors Association and a member of its executive committee; he has also served as president of Plastics SA.

He was part of the project team that initiated the environmental leg of Plastics SA as well as Enviromark and Polyco initiatives. Jeremy’s passion for the plastics industry is throughout these bodies, and he fights tirelessly for the industry in many public forums. He has been one of the pioneers blazing a trail for initiatives such as polymer levies, sustainability, recycling and job creation. Indeed, many in the industry look to him for direction, leadership and advice.

He’s a worthy winner of this year’s PACSA Achiever Award.