A £5 million investment and 30 new jobs to be created with one big move to Plymouth for the family run glazing manufacturer, Westcountry Glass.
Sealed unit manufacturer, Westcountry Glass, currently located in Saltash, is relocating and expanding into new premise in Plymouth, as part of a £5million investment, quadrupling its factory size to more than 40,000ft2.
Currently manufacturing and supplying double and tripled glazed units accross the South West, the company says it has experienced such an increase in demand over the past five years, that it has outgrown its already extended factory. The new expansion will see Westcountry Glass’ delivery routes go up the M5 corridor to Birmingham and across the M4 to Swindon, extending the reach of its parent company, the Cornwall Glass Group, to new counties and customers.
Glass manufacturing and processing capabilities will also be ‘substantially increased’, with a large investment into state-of-the-art machinery and technology. The intention is to install a new toughening plant, that will have the ability to toughen glass approximately 2,800mm x 4,200mm in size and 4-19mm in thickness. According to Westcountry Glass, it will have ‘the most up to date technology in zoned heating and convection to maximise output, glass quality and visual quality’. The new unit line will be able to produce over-sized double and triple glazed units up to 4,000mm x 2,700mm depending on the glass types specified. It is also intended to add a CNC processor to the factory, which will extend Westcountry Glass’ processing capabilities, including shaped glass that can be drilled and etched.
Mark Norcliffe, company director, said: “This significant investment in the Cornwall Glass Group at Westcountry Glass will enable us to provide our own branch network, existing customers and new customers with a full range of high performance and much larger product offerings, along with new single toughened processed glass products which we have not been able to produce before. We are all very excited and looking forward to the opportunities and challenges ahead.”
The relocation will initially create 30 new jobs over the next two years for the Plymouth community, including skilled processors and apprentices. This new site will be fully operational in the later part of 2015.
