Our engineering history

The PLANTERS division of the company was formed originally in London as PLANTERS ENGINEERING Co. in the early 1900s, with a manufacturing base in Bolton, North West England. The company specialised in natural rubber processing equipment as well as baling presses for natural rubber, metal, tobacco, cotton and many other materials.

In 1958 PLANTERS with its expertise in natural rubber baling developed a press for the infant synthetic rubber industry. This became the forerunner of our flagship Synthetic Rubber Baling Press.

In 1969 all sales and engineering functions were transferred to the Bolton manufacturing base and new metal baling solutions were developed to complement the existing product base. These new developments included a large 3-stage baler and the smaller single stage unit – with the latest generations of these balers now found alongside the original machinery in many recycling applications.

In 1983 the CLAYTON PLASTICS MACHINERY division was incorporated, specialising in a range of small vertical lock plastic injection moulding machines for the electrical connection industry.

In 1994 the PLANTERS and CLAYTON divisions of the original company were formed into PLANTERS CLAYTON LTD in order to promote and manufacture the specialised products for which the two divisions had earned a world-wide reputation.

In 2005 the CLAYTON injection moulding machinery was discontinued due to the closure of its main customers production sites. The existing CLAYTON machinery continued to be supported for 10 additional years, prior to this milestone the CLAYTON staff were incorporated into the PLANTERS division to support the increased demand for PLANTERS equipment.

In 2018 PLANTERS CLAYTON LTD relocated its main design office to a modern, purpose-built Office Park, offering up-to-date technology, surroundings and closer links to the transport network.