Proudly Portals

Ross Holliday

Chief Executive Officer

With a wealth of industry expertise, Ross re-joins Portals in the role of Chief Executive Office at Portals Paper Ltd. He brings his extensive commercial experience and knowledge of the security paper business to the team. Ross, previously CEO of The Portals Group, initiated and led the management buyout and subsequent carve out from De La Rue in 2018 re-establishing the Portals brand. Prior to Portals, Ross held a number of senior operational positions during his 9 years at De La Rue. Ross’s global paper making career included roles across Europe and North America with ArjoWiggins, UPM, Caraustar and SAPPI. Ross has a doctorate in Electrical Engineering specialising in AI and a degree in Paper Science from the University of Manchester.

Rebecca Lewis

Operations Director

Beginning her career with Portals in 2003, Rebecca now has over 20 years of experience in the paper industry. Starting out as a Scientific Officer, she soon progressed to the role of Process Chemist while also completing her Open University degree in Molecular Science. Rebecca continued to progress through the business, leading the Quality and Technical functions in the Portals currency division at Overton Paper Mill before making the move to Bathford as Operations Director in 2022. In this latest role, Rebecca is responsible for all aspects of a smooth running the site from manufacturing to supply chain, engineering to human resources. Rebecca is thrilled to be part of the new management team at Portals and to help lead the refocussed business towards a new and exciting future.

Harriet Plumb

Sales & Commercial Director

With an educational and career background in law, Harriet initially worked within the private client legal field before moving into the Identity and Security Documents industry almost 10 years ago. Harriet has worked tirelessly building strong customer relationships and developing a keen expertise in understanding the threats, movements and requirements of the sector, to create bespoke solutions that always stay one step ahead of the fraudsters. In her current role as Sales Director, Harriet works alongside an exceptional team of sales and commercially minded individuals, focussed on the development and growth of the Portals’ security paper portfolio including its global passport, certificate and high-security document offering. Incredibly passionate about the sector and industry, Harriet, unashamedly, has both a personal and professional love of paper.

Nick Potter

Technical Director

Nick first joined Portals when he was just 18 years old and is still as committed to the business today, as he was then. The variety of roles Nick has held at the mill has seen him working in almost every manufacturing department, building his knowledge and skills to develop the highest levels of paper making expertise. His experience includes the introduction of new products and specialist knowledge of technical and physical properties. In addition Nick also leads a world class creative design team. As Technical Director and a key member of the Portals Leadership Team, Nick continues to work extremely closely with both customers and colleagues to engineer premium quality watermarks alongside the very specific physical properties required for high security identity documents.

Holly Ind

HR Manager, Human Resources

Holly studied Business Studies with a pathway to Human Resource Management at Bournemouth University and has always been passionate about changing the perspective of Human Resources within the workplace for the better. Holly has worked at Portals for six years; she started as an HR Administrator and since then has worked in a number of different roles within the HR team. Outside of work she has a love for performing, whether that be in musical theatre, pantomimes, or dance events!

What does your job involve?
I am responsible for all people related policies on site, supporting and implementing them. I manage the recruitment process in a timely manner to ensure it is fair, onboard new starters, manage our payroll process and all employee benefit offerings as well as our HR system and Occupational Health process. In addition, I monitor trends and feed back to the Site Leadership and Business Leadership teams.

What does that mean you actually do on a day-to-day basis?
I liaise with employees, managers, new starters and interview candidates and third-party contracts. I meet with people across the business to listen and discuss concerns or ideas and provide support when required to ensure everyone fully understands our people related policies. I am also responsible for ensuring employees are paid on time and correctly.

How does that benefit the customer?
I feel it is very important to have a happy and healthy workforce so our security paper can be made to the best of our ability. Therefore, utilising our people policies and ensuring positive changes to our culture is essential to benefiting our end customer.

What do you like best about working here?
I have always felt very welcome by our people from my first day onsite. If you are keen to develop your skills and career, Portals is great at supporting with that and we have some brilliant examples of successful career stories across the business.

Why are you so #proudlyportals?
I truly believe Portals cares for its people, and I am proud to be a big part of the support network.

Jonathan Lewis

Commercial Manager, Sales & Commercial

Jonathan joined Portals seven months ago, hailing from the vibrant seaside town of Clevedon. He brings vast experience in commercial and contract management to the team and has quickly developed a passion for security paper. Outside of work, you’ll often find him chasing a football around a pitch or enjoying time with his family and friends.

What does your job involve?
I provide support to our sales and business process teams with a focus on managing the commercial terms we have with customers, suppliers and other third parties. I also develop and maintain several processes to define and regulate the commercial activity of the business and am responsible for managing the Portals Intellectually Property portfolio.

What does that mean you actually do on a day-to-day basis?
My day-to-day can vary greatly. A lot of the day will be spent on my laptop responding to emails, reviewing and drafting documents, letters and contracts but also monitoring third party compliance with our sanctions and anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies, conducting due diligence and risk assessments for new and existing customers, suppliers and other third parties we engage with on a regular basis and ensuring several policies and procedures for the business are up to date and available to the business.

How does that benefit the customer?
My work helps demonstrate to our customers that Portals lives up to its Code of Business Principles to “do the right thing”. In the industry we work in it is fundamental we are only engaging with the right parties to conduct our business operations and thankfully we have had a successful time over many years nurturing relationships with trusted partners, especially our customers!

What do you like best about working here?
For me, its cliché but it’s the people. Having worked for a much larger business for ten years it’s given me a fresh perspective on how a business should be run and the quality of life that comes with working alongside great people. People who are not only fantastic at what they do but also know how to properly treat their colleagues and all other people they engage with.

Why are you so #proudlyportals?
It’s the family feel on site, we are in it together. Being a small team there are times when you must help someone with something not usually within your remit. But everyone is always happy to support each other, especially when it is urgent. It’s been a pleasure for me to get to know the team over the past seven months and to do my bit to help them, as they have done for me.

Chris Quinlan

Mould Office Technical Lead

Chris joined Portals at 18 having left sixth form, and went straight into the mould office as a trainee. He took an opportunity to move to the Overton mould office as a senior mould technician in 2008 before returning in 2023 as the Mould Technical Lead. Portals has been Chris’s only employer for the last 19 years and he has seen many changes along the way. He has developed a passion for all things mould making and likes to trace its roots back to Victorian times - you may find him talking about the Great exhibition of 1851!

Outside of work you’ll find him playing the role of Chauffeur & Kit Manger when supporting his son as Goalkeeper for a grassroots football team and maybe the next Irish full back for a Local Rugby side....

What does your job involve?
I will help prepare mould tasks and provide the information for the mould Chargehand and team to create the moulds ready for paper making. Documentation and process flow is key for moulds to be manufactured safely, securely and to a high degree of accuracy. Having structured processes with quality control checks along the way helps to ensure we have provided a mould that will deliver what the customer is looking for in their watermarked paper.

What does that mean you actually do on a day-to-day basis?
Every day is completely different, and you need to be flexible in whatever task you might be carrying out. I can be processing embossing dies for the milling machine on CAD/CAM software or creating information packs for the next mould to go through the shop. I help create inspections strips to quality check the accuracy of our moulds as we work to tolerances of +/- 0.3mm, and then produce checking templates for the mill for us to quality check the paper that has been made is within spec to our customer requirements. Never one to shy away from getting my hands dirty, I have the opportunity to build relationships with suppliers for our mould wire and Electrotype. Working with the NPI (New Product Introduction) team, is also a good opportunity to push the boundaries of mould making.

How does that benefit the customer?
My role, and the role of the mould office is all about ensuring the quality and accuracy of the watermarks we are producing. We work very hard as a team to deliver a mould that is fit for purpose and will give the desired multi tonal watermark that the customer is looking for.

What do you like best about working here?
My favourite part is the uniqueness of the product we are producing and the huge number of people that are unaware of what we do and are connected with. We all take things for granted in how things are made every day and often when I have talked about what I do (the bits you can talk about!) I get the same response, “do you really make that in paper?”

Why are you so #proudlyportals?
For such a small company with a great family feel, we are really making our mark in the world. The people I have worked with make Portals, taking the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience.

Sarah Blanchard

Salle Operative

Sarah has been a valued member of the Bathford team for just over 40 years! Huge admiration and congratulations to her on such an incredible achievement!

What does your job involve?
In the Salle, the part of the paper making process that sees the cutting, counting, quality control, specification checking and then wrapping of the paper webs or sheets before despatch. Sarah’s day to day role incudes flow line work, web packaging, jogging (making sure the sheets are all neat and aligned), dimension check and QC. Multi-functionally trained, Sarah is ready and able to turn her hand to almost every aspect of the Salle operations.

What does that mean you actually do on a day-to-day basis?
In addition to the functional side of things – the prepping, processing and packing of the paper for despatch, my role is to carry out the final physical and visual checks to ensure the product is fully in spec before moving to warehouse and shipping.

What do you like best about working here?
It’s the people. Without a doubt, the people. It is more than just a team – it is like a family here – especially when you have worked for Portals Bathford as long as I have – and I am not the longest serving employee here either!

Why are you so #proudlyportals?
It is amazing what we do here – the papers, watermarks and fibre inclusions – what we make is beautiful and also very technical and secure – I am really proud to be a part of it.