From The Factory Floor To The Family Legacy: The Story Of Big Bear

There is a particular breed of British manufacturer that combines deep industrial knowledge with the stubborn persistence of a family enterprise. Big Bear Plastic Products Ltd, based in Droitwich in the heart of the West Midlands, is a fine example of that tradition. Over the course of more than a quarter of a century, it has grown from a specialist vacuum forming operation into one of the UK's most respected thermoforming companies, producing large-format plastic components for customers across agriculture, construction, automotive, leisure and beyond. It is a story rooted in the ingenuity of one man, carried forward by the ambition of his daughter, and pointed squarely at the future.

The Founder: A Life Dedicated to Plastics

To understand Big Bear, you must first understand Gerald Bloom. Recognised by Interplas UK among its prestigious 75@75 list of plastics industry champions, compiled to mark the 75th anniversary of the show, Bloom is a figure who has shaped British plastic moulding over several decades. As Interplas noted in the citation, he dedicated his life to the industry, bringing new technologies and manufacturing processes to the UK across an entirely self-made career. His commitment to the craft was so hands-on in the early days that he built his first moulding machines himself.

Before Big Bear, Gerald founded and developed Midland Industrial Plastics Ltd (MIP), a company that became a major Tier 1 supplier of automotive interior trim parts, pioneering a wide range of advanced plastic moulding technologies that were ahead of their time in the UK market. MIP grew to employ around 1,000 people across a variety of manufacturing sites and joint ventures, a remarkable achievement for a business built from scratch. The company was ultimately acquired by Textron Inc., one of the leading US industrial manufacturers, a testament to the calibre and scale of what Gerald had built.

Rather than retire on his achievements, Gerald returned to his roots. In 1998, drawing on the technical expertise he had accumulated across a lifetime in the industry and supported by engineering colleagues from his days at MIP, he founded Big Bear Plastic Products Ltd.

Building Big Bear: The Early Years

The company was established with a clear purpose: to apply the highest manufacturing standards to the vacuum forming and trimming of plastic parts. From its outset, Big Bear positioned itself as a technically capable business with serious industrial pedigree. The team Gerald assembled brought with it many years of experience in automotive plastics, giving the fledgling company a head start that a purely start-up operation would have taken years to earn.

The business found its home in Droitwich, Worcestershire, a location that places it at the geographical heart of England and within easy reach of the motorway network, major rail stations and Birmingham International Airport. It is ideal territory for a manufacturer whose customers stretch across multiple industries nationwide. Over time, Big Bear invested in a purpose-built modern factory that now spans 75,000 square feet, housing state-of-the-art equipment and an experienced production team.

The company holds both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 accreditation and has additional experience of the automotive quality standard IATF16949, reflecting the rigorous quality culture that Gerald Bloom instilled from the beginning.

What Big Bear Makes

Big Bear specialises in the production of large and complex plastic components using thermoforming technology, encompassing vacuum forming, twin-sheet forming, pressure forming and, more recently, compression moulding. These processes involve heating thermoplastic sheet material until it becomes pliable and then shaping it over or into a mould under vacuum or pressure to achieve precise forms, sometimes at considerable scale.

The range of materials the company works with is broad, including ABS, PMMA-ABS, HDPE, HIPS, PC and PE, available in a variety of colours, finishes and thicknesses. Critically, Big Bear can produce moulded parts up to 3.5 metres by 2.5 metres, which places it among a relatively small number of UK manufacturers capable of handling truly large-format components.

The products themselves are perhaps more familiar to the average person than might be imagined. Caravan bumpers, bodywork for agricultural and construction vehicles, components for garden ponds, interior parts for mobile homes, aeroplane seat elements and trims for leisure vehicles all fall within Big Bear's portfolio. The company offers a full-service solution, from initial design, development and tooling through to medium and high-volume moulded parts, meaning customers can bring a concept and receive a finished product from a single supplier. More recently, the company has expanded its capabilities to include waterjet cutting, a precision process well suited to the trimming of large or complex components, alongside CNC machining.

A Different Kind of Succession

In many family businesses, the transfer of leadership from founder to the next generation follows a familiar pattern. A son or daughter who grew up in and around the factory joins the business in their twenties, works their way through various departments and eventually assumes the top role. Emma Hockley's journey was rather different and is all the more interesting for it.

Before she had anything to do with vacuum forming or thermoplastic polymers, Emma was building a career at Harrods, the famous Knightsbridge department store. She joined the PR department on a work experience placement and progressed through the organisation to become Buyer for Perfumery & Cosmetics, the largest buying division in the store. One of her notable achievements there was the creation of the Perfume Diaries, an exhibition charting the history of perfume that generated more than £2 million in press coverage, delivered significant sales results and was hailed as ‘the first significant perfume exhibition of recent times with international resonance’. It was a world of high-end luxury brands, glossy campaigns and affluent clientele, a considerable distance from the factory floor in Droitwich.

She eventually joined Big Bear as part of the Sales team, bringing with her a sharp commercial instinct and an ability to tell a compelling story about a product. Over more than five years in that role, she worked alongside every part of the operation, from engineering and production to purchasing and finance, learning the business from the inside. In September 2020, as part of a company-wide restructure, she was appointed Managing Director.

Emma has been candid about the challenge of making that transition. Moving from a senior position at one of the world's most famous retailers, to leading a manufacturer in a technical sector she had not grown up in, required her to rebuild her professional confidence from the ground up. She has spoken of questioning the status quo and refusing to accept that things were done a certain way simply because that was how they had always been done. That determination and fresh perspective, it turns out, have proven to be considerable assets.

The appointment was also a deliberate act of succession planning. As Emma has noted, her becoming Managing Director allowed Big Bear to establish a strong succession plan and map a genuine long-term future for the business. Gerald remains involved as Owner and Chairman, ensuring that the deep technical knowledge and industry relationships he has spent a lifetime building remain available to the company, while Emma shapes its commercial direction and growth strategy.

Five Years at the Helm and a £2 Million Investment

By the time Emma marked five years as Managing Director in early 2026, Big Bear had been through a period of significant investment and transformation. The company completed a £2 million capital investment programme, installing two CNC machines, a new industrial robot and a waterjet cutter. Alongside the new hardware, Big Bear implemented a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, developed with support from WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) and Made Smarter, designed to integrate operations more efficiently and support new product introductions without disrupting service to existing customers. The next planned step in the company's digital evolution is exploring the practical application of artificial intelligence to enhance efficiency and support employees.

Emma has also brought a distinctive focus on internal communications, understanding that a cohesive team with clarity about the company's direction performs better than one left in the dark. She launched a monthly company newsletter and introduced quarterly business updates for the entire staff, ensuring that every employee understands how their contribution fits into the wider picture.

The workforce currently stands at between 80 and 100 people; a team of engineers, production specialists and support staff many of whom carry automotive manufacturing experience from earlier careers. Emma has been recognised externally as well, having been inducted into the Great 100 campaign by the Made Group, a programme that celebrates the most influential individuals in UK manufacturing.

The Road Ahead

Big Bear's ambitions for the coming years are clearly stated. Emma believes the business can achieve and sustain annual sales of more than £10 million by 2027, building on a steady growth trajectory and a strong order pipeline. To get there, the company is targeting sectors that complement its existing strengths while opening new doors.

Point-of-sale retail represents one significant opportunity, where Big Bear's capability to produce large, high-quality formed components at volume could serve display and retail fixture manufacturers. Defence is another target market, with the company working towards joining the JOSCAR register, a collaborative platform used by suppliers to the UK aerospace, defence and security sectors. Big Bear already holds ISO 9001 accreditation and has recently achieved ISO 14001, the environmental management standard, both of which will support its progression into more regulated markets.

Consolidation in the broader plastics sector is also creating space for well-run, technically capable independent manufacturers. As larger players have merged or withdrawn from certain markets, gaps have appeared that a business with Big Bear's combination of skills, equipment and service ethic is well placed to fill. Emma has spoken of overcoming some of the industry's persistent pain points, including speed of response, material innovation and the achievement of world-class quality at both lower and higher volumes.

The company is also paying attention to sustainability and material innovation, areas where customer and regulatory expectations are rising steadily. As the industry navigates wider shifts around the use of recycled and bio-based thermoplastics, Big Bear's engineering capability will be central to its ability to adapt and lead.

A Business Built to Last

Big Bear Plastics is in many respects an embodiment of the West Midlands manufacturing tradition: technically grounded, quietly ambitious and built on hard-won expertise rather than flash or fanfare. Gerald Bloom built Midland Industrial Plastics into a thousand-person business from scratch, pioneered manufacturing processes that advanced the UK plastics industry and then started again to build something new and lasting. What he created in 1998 has, in the hands of his daughter, evolved into a confident, modern manufacturer with its sights firmly set on the next phase of growth.

Emma’s story is one of the more unusual in British manufacturing, a woman who arrived from the world of luxury retail with no engineering background, learnt an industry, built a team, made significant investments in technology and emerged with a clear strategy and the credibility to carry it out. The transition between generations at Big Bear has not been without its challenges, but it has produced a business that combines the founder's technical heritage with a fresh commercial energy.

For a company that has just celebrated its 25th anniversary, there is a pleasing sense of just getting started and we look forward to seeing the next stages in the journey with Emma at the helm.