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 Rapra
Limited was founded in 1919 as the R.A.B.R.M (the Research
Association of British Rubber Manufacturers). The company
was set up as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee.
Operating from its base in Croydon, South London, it offered
a range of Member-only technical and information services
to its rubber-industry Membership base.
The
company moved to Shawbury in Shropshire in 1954. In 1960,
plastics was added to the company’s remit and it changed
its name to the Rubber and Plastics Research Association (RAPRA
for short). Until the late 1970s, the company continued to
be funded by Membership subscriptions, supplemented by direct
government grant funding. In the following years, the provision
of direct government grants diminished and eventually ceased
and the company’s income became based on the sale of
research, technology and information services to Members (on
a preferential basis) and also to non-Member companies.
In
1985, the company changed its name to Rapra Technology Ltd.
and a board of directors was appointed (executive and non-executive)
to oversee the activities of the company. In 2002, the management
team of Rapra Technology, with the support of the main board
and the Members, exercised a Management Buyout (MBO), acquiring
the assets and liabilities of the company from Rapra Technology
Ltd.
 The
former-Rapra Technology Ltd was re-named Rapra Limited in
2002 and continued to be the formal Membership-based not-for-profit
organisation, offering Membership services via the “new”
Rapra Technology MBO company. In 2006, this new company was
bought by the Smithers Group, an independent testing and consultancy
organisation based in Akron Ohio.
Today,
Rapra Limited continues to be a not-for-profit company limited
by guarantee, offering its Members preferential access to
the services and products provided by Rapra Technology within
the Smithers Group. In addition to the board of non-executive
directors, Rapra Limited employs Richard Walton as full-time
Membership Director to manage the Membership scheme, to oversee
the links with Rapra Technology and with the Smithers Group
and to develop other schemes and initiatives to expand the
Membership activity.
For
more information about how you can be involved with Rapra
Limited, contact  Richard
Walton.
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