Pioneering pitched roof tile manufacturer, Russell Roof Tiles, is starting 2021 with a strong order book and is unveiling a £1.7m capital investment programme for its Scottish tile plant.
Russell Roof Tiles (RRT) is the largest independent manufacturer of concrete derivatives in the UK pitched roofing market and employs 140 staff across its three sites (two in Burton) and Lochmaben, Scotland.
Work is about to start on its 11-acre site at Lochmaben which will be completed in Spring. The works include a major upgrade to its utility plant.
This involves investment in a replacement building that will house a new packing system, including the firm’s first robotic packer. Russell Roof Tiles is also carrying out a full electrical upgrade and introducing mechanical improvements across key machinery. The benefit this will bring is to increase the capacity of this production line to allow RRT to meet the growing demands for its products, and also help secure the efficiency of this line for future years.
This investment follows on from new moulds purchased for this production line back in 2019 and 2020.
RRT’s dynamic response to Covid-19 has meant that the company has started 2021 with a strong order book, allowing it to make this massive investment. The company was one of the first in its sector to resume manufacturing last year enabling it to meet pent up demand.
Despite ceasing production when the first national lockdown was announced in March 2020, the business was quickly able to restart production at all of its three sites in May. This meant that Russell Roof Tiles has been able to maintain good lead times and fulfil a growing order book, as construction bounced back.
This latest Investment is part of Russell Roof Tiles’ capital improvement plan to further enhance quality across the business, by utilising the latest innovations in manufacturing.
Andrew Hayward, Managing Director at Russell Roof Tiles said: “Over the past five years, we have invested significantly in new plant and equipment at all of our three sites to both increase manufacturing efficiencies and reduce our environmental impact.”
The business is continuing with a recruitment drive across all of its sites.
