Westcountry Glass Expands and Grows Warm Edge Production
Published: 26.02.2016
Westcountry Glass, part of the Cornwall Glass Group, has made its largest investment in 37 years of trading. The insulated glass (IG) sealed unit manufacturer, previously located in Saltash, has now relocated to its new factory in Plymouth. The new building is four times the size of its previous site.
The new factory was officially opened by Lord Mayor of Plymouth Councillor Dr John Mahony who cut the opening ribbon with Westcountry Glass company directory Mark Norcliffe.
The new building houses a range of state-of-the-art equipment including: a new toughening plant and CNC processor; an AG-Series Gapless Forced Connection Glass Tempering Furnace; an Intermac CNC Master 33; automated concertina racks and two new jumbo Intermac cutting tables; one for laminated glass and the other for float (monolithic) glass.
In addition, there is a new Bystronic IG Line with first production on Thermobar Warm Edge Spacer from Thermoseal Group. This line will produce up to 2700 x 5000mm size units, double and triple glazed.
An investment approaching £5million has been allocated to this ambitious project, with the anticipation over the next 24 months of creating an additional 40 jobs to add to the Group’s current total workforce of 240.
Much time, effort and research was spent visiting machinery manufacturers in Romania, Italy, Spain, Ireland, China along with visiting many like-minded and kindly UK glass processors and IG manufacturers, before the key purchasing decisions were made. The whole project was planned and implemented over a tight but momentum fuelled 12-month period.
Aside from this milestone investment, the Group’s other two major manufacturing sites (St Austell, Cornwall and Highbridge, Somerset) have made substantial investments in Waterjet cutting, Straight Line Edgers processing and Sealed Unit Lines.
Louise Oldham, Marketing Manager at the Cornwall Glass and Glazing Group said:
Thermoseal Group are our preferred and trusted partner in all matters IGU related, our close relationship with Colin Cook our regional sales manager from Thermoseal, is much valued and we look forward to developing the relationship for many years to come, continuing to use and promote a very wide portfolio of products.
Company Director, Mark Norcliffe said ”The new expansion will see Westcountry Glass’ delivery routes go up the M5 corridor and across the M4, growing the reach of the Cornwall Glass Group to new counties and customers, with exciting new possibilities”.
The family run company began trading back in 1978 in Truro, Cornwall. As the business grew, additional branches were added to the group, including Plymouth Glass Centre in Devonport. Today the group has 15 branches from Penzance to Bristol and over 200 colleagues, with brothers Garry and Mark Mitchell as Co-Chairmen and their father as the company’s founder - It is evident that the family values run through the core of the group. Combining the family values, the dedication of a highly skilled colleagues, state of the art facilities and the extensive range of products, it has allowed the Cornwall Glass Group to position itself as the leading glass and glazing manufacturer and supplier in the South West.
The new production facility is now fully operational at Langage in Plymouth, Devon.