Meet the team

Yorkshire Packaging is a family company at heart, founded by chairman David Johnson and currently under the directorship of his son-daughter team, Glyn and Rachel Johnson. Completing the board of directors are Bill Bruce, Josh Gibson and Jonny Braithwaite, who you might say are like extended family. Making sure all the cogs keep turning in our engineering department are Pat McHale and Sharon Kelly. Here’s where you can find out a little more about the team's roles, their goals, and what they like to get up to when the working day is wrapped up!

David Johnson
Chairman

David has almost chalked up an impressive fifty years of experience in the packaging sector. He worked for a machine business and then a shrink film specialist in the early days before deciding to set up YPS in 1977. This diverse, hands-on career means he has experienced the industry's many challenges and developments and as a result, he knows everything that is worth knowing about wrapping! As our chairman, David still actively oversees all the goings-on at YPS and keeps a firm handle on industry changes to make sure the business is always innovating and leading the way.

In testament to his dedication and success, David was awarded the 'Lifetime Achievement' award in 2015 by the PPMA, our trade association, recognising his exceptional services to the packaging industry.

In his spare time David whiles away the hours fishing, gardening and growing his own vegetables as well as spending time with his four grandchildren.

Glyn Johnson
Managing Director

For our managing director Glyn, the pull of the family business was always strong. While studying for his Business degree, Glyn joined the team in a sales support and administration role, working at YPS throughout his final year at university. With a natural aptitude for sales and a passion for great customer service, he never left, going on to work his way up through the business to the role of managing director, which he took on in 2008.

Glyn is focused on the future of the business, always seeking to innovate and future-proof YPS against the competition. Under his directorship, the business maintains a solid reputation, differentiating itself through its aftersales service and support, as well as its diverse product portfolio.

When he is not behind his desk working on the next big thing for YPS, Glyn is usually found keeping active. He has a passion for scuba diving, participating in triathlons and spending quality time with his family.

Rachel Johnson
Operations Director

Rachel joined the family firm in 2004, focussing and excelling at shrink film sales for several successful years. However, since starting a family, Rachel has swapped the road for our head office, taking on the multifunctional role of operations director in 2013. A typical day sees Rachel managing our HR, looking after our finances and overseeing our busy engineering department. Despite her workload, she still presides over one of our key shrink film customer accounts to this day.

When she is not helping to build the YPS brand, Rachel loves to socialise and spend time with her family. She is passionate about fundraising for good causes in our local community and is an active governor at the local school which her children attend. Plus, anyone who knows Rachel at all knows that she is hugely fond of the colour purple!

Jonny Braithwaite
Sales Director

Returning to the UK from extensive travels across America, New Zealand and Australia, in 2011 Jonny was ready to build on his passion for business and economics by taking on the position of sales manager. Coming from a family business background himself, our business model stood out to Jonny and he relished the opportunity to be part of an ambitious and growing organisation.

Becoming pretty much an overnight hit with our customer base and the wider YPS team alike, Jonny was promoted to sales director in 2015. Day-to-day he focuses on a wide scope of activities including account management, business strategy and product development, but specialises in technical sales for both machinery and films.

Outside of work, Jonny likes to relax with his wife and their young daughters. A keen golfer and sport enthusiast, he takes to the course whenever he has some downtime.

Bill Bruce
Sales Director

Thanks to his wide-ranging expertise in the packaging industry both in the UK and abroad, Bill was a welcome addition to the business when he joined in 2000. Concentrating on all aspects of shrinkable films for both food and non-food applications, Bill has been absolutely instrumental in our growth over the past two decades, carving out our position as the go-to supplier for flexible films in the UK.

Today, Bill is focused on ensuring the continued expansion of the business, coaching any new additions to the film sales division and capitalising on our year-on-year growth through innovations in both the food and non-food markets.

Bill is a talented guitar player, using most of his spare time to hone his musical skills which he discovered at the age of just 13. He is married with children and is excited about being a grandfather for the first time.

Josh Gibson
Sales Director

Josh joined our shrink film division in January 2015, following the successes and rapid growth of the department under his predecessor Jonny.

Graduating from University in Liverpool with a Geography degree, Josh adventured around South-East Asia and Australia for 18 months before finding his ideal home at YPS. It didn’t take long for our talented new graduate to learn everything there is to know about heat shrink films, with a particular focus on printed film and films for the food industry. Josh’s dedication, enthusiasm and success in shrink film sales culminated in his directorship appointment in March 2019.

When Josh isn’t on the road visiting our customers, he’s all about sport! If he’s not playing it, he's watching it; anything from football, to golf, to skiing.

Pat McHale
Engineering Manager

Since the summer of 2018, Pat has been our engineering department's master planner and servicing scheduler. With a background in production and project management gleaned at a local manufacturing firm, Pat's skills made him the perfect candidate for this role.

Pat's responsibilities involve the daily overseeing of our engineer's activities both on-site and in our workshop, organising the commissioning of new machinery, routine service visits, operator training sessions and machine refurbishment projects. He's also the point of contact for after-sales equipment support and service contract packages. Customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to Pat, who says what he enjoys most is interacting with our customers and responding to their technical needs.

Outside of YPS, Pat plays football for his local team and enjoys a number of other outdoor pursuits, especially snowboarding. He also has two energetic young children who keep him busy most evenings and weekends!

Sharon Kelly
Service Planner

A relative newcomer to the YPS family, Sharon took up the post of service planner in April 2022 and has quickly become indispensable to our engineering department! With 14 years of field service management experience under her belt gleaned from roles at a medical company and an industrial forklift business, Sharon is well versed in all the nuts, bolts and daily grind that makes up B2B engineering.

Sharon is responsible for actioning customer quotation requests for machine parts and for quoting for parts identified as necessary during an engineer's visit. She also packs and despatches ordered parts to customers across the UK and Ireland, oversees stock control and manages the parts supply chain for our European and UK-based manufacturers. She says the most rewarding part of her role is engaging with customers to successfully resolve their technical issues.

Sharon enjoys weekends spent in the garden, cooking or dining out. She loves to travel to far-flung countries on her holidays and has a not-so-secret penchant for dance music - the louder the better!


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