Steel firm unveils £5m assembly plant in Notts
Nottingham-based Caunton Engineering is set to become one of the UK’s largest single-site structural steelwork contractors following the unveiling of The Cut Shack - a new £5m purpose-built plant.
The 45,000 sq ft facility, on the site of the former Moorgreen Colliery, will help create 20 new high-end engineering jobs.
Family-owned Caunton Engineering has enjoyed a steady growth since its humble beginnings in a blacksmiths in the village of Caunton, near Newark, 44 years ago. The company now enjoys an annual turnover in the region of £40m, employs 230 people and supplies high-quality steelwork for a diverse range of UK projects including stadia for the London 2012 Olympics, the new North Stand of Leicester Tiger’s stadium and structural steelwork for the Museum of Liverpool.
Caunton Engineering’s managing director, Simon Bingham, said: “The Cut Shack is the result of more than four years’ planning and development and reflects a desire to innovate and change the way we do things which has driven the company’s expansion over the last 40 years.
“The Cut Shack has a unique configuration of nine separate processing machines sourced from Germany and the USA, which alone have a combined cost of more than £2.5 million. This will allow us to effectively revolutionise our production process, allowing for huge efficiencies and increased flexibility. We have now created a purpose-built plant which reflects the very latest in industry thinking gained from a range of similar operations across the world.”
“It was a brave decision to invest in the project four years ago when we were still suffering from recession - reflecting perhaps more our family-owned aspiration for long-term growth rather than a shareholders desire for a quick profit. But that decision now looks to have paid off.”
Innes England handled the initial pre-construction valuation of the site and provided valuation advice to Lloyds Bank in support of its development funding in the project. Innes England's building consultancy team then went on to provide development monitoring services for Caunton and Lloyds Bank to approve drawdowns throughout the construction process. The Innes England valuation team then returned to site to confirm that the value of the final building was in line with the initial valuation to complete the development monitoring service.
Mike Thorne of Innes England said: "It's rewarding to see the launch of the Cut Shack at it's purpose-built 45,000 sq ft new facility. This was an ambitious project but the result is a solid foundation for future growth of this successful Notts business."
Bingham predicts that the improved efficiencies created by the new plant will lead to significantly improved turnover, exceeding the 400 tonnes of steelwork the company currently produces each week. He added: “The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in demand for more technical and complex steelwork structures with latest reports indicating that buyers are facing the biggest shortage in subcontractors for 17 years.
“As architects and developers are becoming more ambitious with their design and scope, so we have to adapt by introducing new thinking and improved processes and efficiencies. The Cut Shack provides us with this firm foundation for future growth, and its integration with the rest of our factory will create one of the largest and most technologically advanced single-site operations to be found anywhere in the UK today.”
The Cut Shack was officially opened on Wednesday 24 September 2014 by the High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and well-known local architect, Graham Cartledge.
See original article here