Right royal opening for factory extension
A COMPANY welcomed a royal visitor to open its new factory extension,
The Duke of Kent was the guest of honour when clay pipes manufacturer Naylor Industries unveiled the job-creating £5m extension.
The new facility will allow the construction products company to make larger diameter pipes for its customers in the infrastructure, agriculture and utilities sectors to carry bigger volumes of surface water, helping protect Britain against flooding from extreme weather.
The Cawthorne-based company, which draws a number of employees from the Huddersfield area, received a £615,000 grant from the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership to support its investment. Naylor’s last major project was in 2008 when the family-owned firm completed a £4m investment in its production facilities to manufacture 600mm diameter pipe – helping the company to accelerate out of the last recession.
The new facility will manufacture double-walled pipes of 750mm, 900mm and 1050mm diameter.
The project creates 20 new jobs on the Cawthorne site, including a number of highly skilled engineering roles. Founded in 1890, Naylor originally manufactured clay brick and pipes but expanded into plastic in 2000.
Edward Naylor took over as chief executive in 1993 when Naylor was loss-making and had sales of £12m. Turnover broke through the £50m barrier for the first time this year and the company now employs 400 people at six sites across the UK.
It also has a successful consumer business, Yorkshire Flowerpots, which are guaranteed frost-proof.
The Duke of Kent toured the factory with Mr Naylor and met staff The Duke of Kent (right) and Naylor Industries chief executive (centre) Edward Naylor chat to an employee at the opening of the firm’s new £5m factory extension members and apprentices.
Mr Naylor said: “Queen Victoria was on the throne when my greatgrandfather founded Naylor Industries. It was an honour to show the Duke of Kent around our facilities.”
Mr Naylor said British manufacturing has a bright future.
The company trades internationally and has exported pipes into 65 overseas markets.
Naylor made the investment decision before Britain voted to leave the European Union – a decision partly driven by the increasingly unpredictable climate.
Mr Naylor said: “Every year we seem to be seeing once-in-a-lifetime weather events.
“As it rains more heavily, we need larger capacity pipelines to deal with storm water.
“Large diameter pipes are an important part of measures to defend the country against flooding.”
Added Mr Naylor: “We progressed this development despite the outcome of the Brexit referendum. Although this has introduced some uncertainty into our key markets, we hope in due course to get our share of the big infrastructure projects which are in the pipeline such as the high-speed rail, smart motorway and nuclear power projects.”