Midas Pattern Co. is an award-winning precision polyurethane moulding company, providing a range of prototype and production solutions. The company also takes sustainability very seriously. Hannah Barnett spoke to MD and Founder Alan Rance to learn more.
Like many business owners, over the last few years Midas Pattern Co. MD and Founder Alan Rance has led his company on a sustainability journey. More unusually, he can pinpoint the exact moment it began.
“The Midas Green Initiative (MGI) started on April 18th, 2019, when I watched a BBC documentary called Climate Change: The Facts,” he said. “Up until then, I was a typical company MD; I flew all over the world, I drove fossil fuel cars, I ate meat and didn’t think about my carbon footprint at all, though I also believed I was a nature lover. The programme made me see I was as responsible for climate change as anyone, and I vowed in that moment to change my life forever.”
Following his epiphany, Mr Rance has not flown for five years, eats a vegan diet,
drives an EV vehicle and has reduced his personal carbon footprint from 15 tonnes to less than two.
The other significant changes have been infused throughout the business. The company was always highly innovative and first made its name developing a unique system of composite resin tooling. Through the MGI, the company has now documented all that it has done to make the business greener.
“We set out to become carbon neutral and went on to be accredited with PAS 2060 in just 20 months,” Mr Rance explained. “We now use our platform as a world-leading polyurethane moulder to inspire others to do more to reduce their impact on the planet.”
Carbon negative in operation
Midas occupies three adjacent factories in Bedfordshire totalling, 40,000 square feet, including a large toolroom, a moulding facility and a warehouse containing substantial material recycling areas. The number of sus tainable improvements that have been added are more than a little impressive.
“All three factories are carbon negative in operation,” Mr Rance explained, “and all run on 100 per cent genuinely green electricity. We have installed over 730 solar panels on our roofs producing 40 per cent of our annual power needs, our delivery vehicles are all electric, we produce packaging in-house using 100 per cent paperbased materials, we regrind all our waste PU to supply back into the industry and we have a zero single-use plastics policy.”
Midas has 35 years of experience in technical moulding, and it shows. The company can produce moulded parts ideal for 20-
to 30-part complex instrument enclosures. All processes from toolmaking through to screen printing are carried out under one roof, without relying on subcontractors.
“We believe this makes us the lowest risk PU moulder in the marketplace,” said Mr Rance. “Plus, every single mould tool & PU Moulding is delivered with all embedded carbon completely mitigated by way of our relationship with The Forest of Marston Vale. Midas takes responsibility for all our embedded carbon, so our customers don’t have to. This is what being a responsible plastics supplier is all about.”
Then company produces between 25 and 30,000 PU castings a year and employs around 100 people, with turnover reaching approximately £9.5 million for 2023.
Tree-hugger auditable
The extent of the company’s work was recognised last year, when Midas won the Kings Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development. Only 15 sustainability awards were given across the UK in 2023, so for Midas to win one seemed due credit for a job well done.
“I usually joke and say I don’t like to mention the King’s Award, and then I mention it 20 times,” said Mr Rance, “The recognition that comes with it is very significant. It was acknowledgement of the MGI and all the people that have worked so hard to make us a ‘tree-hugger auditable’ company.”
The PR opportunities that subsequently arose meant the company could showcase carbon net zero to a wider audience of businesses that might be inspired to improve their own sustainability.
‘It is incumbent on all of us to make amends for our carbon intensive past. If we do not make carbon net zero the focus of our businesses now, it will soon be too late. It is much the same as planting a tree, you don’t do that for your own pleasure, you do it for the pleasure of future generations. We must Act Now to reverse climate change, not for us but for our children and grandchildren.’
Alan Rance on climate change and business
“There has been a noticeable upturn in interest,” Mr Rance reflected. “Though that’s not difficult, because quite honestly, over the last five years of the MGI we have largely seen a lack of interest from anyone other than those we work directly with. But since the Kings Award, that has changed. Plus, I think more companies are now starting to consider the green credentials of their supply chain.”
Passing it on
The company works with carefully selected key partners who not only improve Midas’ green credentials but make a positive difference further afield.
“We invite them to meet with us in our purpose-built Green Room,” explained Mr Rance. “We show them what we’ve done and then work with them to develop new processes or materials to reduce carbon emissions, not just for Midas, but for anyone that engages with that supplier.”
Midas has worked with suppliers on the development of low carbon tooling boards and PU resins, as well as recycling processes for PU waste. The company has also played a part in advising companies, councils, trade associations and universities on how to reduce their carbon footprint. More radically still, the results of Midas’ innovations are freely available to read online.
“Every single commercial advantage that Midas has gained as a result of the MGI, we have shared with everyone, and that includes competitors,” said Mr Rance. “I’ve even had competitors at my boardroom table, and explained to them what I’ve done and what tangible differences they too could make to improve their bottom line.”
As Midas only takes on lifesaving or lifeenhancing new business, the company is always looking for customers who can benefit from a genuinely carbon net zero supplier of quality PU mouldings.
“The product we make is made from oil,” said Mr Rance. “So, we mitigate all the carbon in that product by way of our
rela tionship with Marston Vale. But we don’t stop there, because we know we’re still using product that’s made from oil. So, I’m pushing suppliers all the time, to work harder to give us products that contain more plant-based chemistry.
“And they’re delivering. I’ve currently got a machine in my mould room commissioned to run a 70 per cent plant-based polyol. That’s unheard of, no one else is doing that. We’re developing that chemistry as I speak, because we won’t rest until we become a PAS 2060 company that doesn’t use oil-based material. I don’t know how long that’s going to take. But I do Know it will take forever if we don’t do anything.”
Midas is clearly both a highly innovative outfit, and one that is serious about making a wider positive impact.
“Leading a world-class company that has genuinely done something impactful in the climate crisis means everything to me,” Mr Rance concluded. “Making difficult tooling has always been what I love, but being part of a team that is also delivering genuinely green solutions is what excites me now. It’s the combination of technical brilliance within the company and being as green as possible. That’s what gets me out of bed. And that’s what keeps pushing Midas forward.” n
