Obituary – Ron Berry

Published on: 20 January 2023

ron-and-marie-berry

Ron Berry, the founder of Wilks (Rubber Plastics) Ltd. sadly passed away on 15 January 2023.

 

Ron, together with his wife Marie, started Wilks in 1973 from a humble shed in their back garden in Witham, Essex buying and selling fendering extrusions. 


After relocating to Tollesbury in Essex a couple of years later, Wilks began to extrude their own profiles and soon developed into one of the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of boat fendering, and in later years synthetic decking. For many years Wilks have also manufactured the checkout bumpers for the UK’s major supermarkets.


Wilks, now in its 50th year, still maintains the virtues of a family run company that Ron instilled from the beginning. 


Having been run by his sons, Chris and Scott, for many years, Wilks was purchased by their customer Flexiteek in 2019 and is now part of the world’s leading supplier of synthetic decking for the leisure boat industry.