£1 million investment boosts Pendock’s versatility
publication date: May 29, 2008
|
author/source: David Harris
Alumasc Interior Building Products, the company behind leading decorative casings and washroom systems brand, Pendock, has invested more than £1 million to create a state of the art manufacturing plant in the UK.
Whereas Pendock’s pre-formed casings were previously manufactured for the company in Italy, the versatile range is now being produced entirely at the company’s new facility, which has resulted in the doubling in size of the UK plant and its workforce; a process that took over six months to complete.
As Managing Director, Paul Hetherington, explains, much more has been involved than the construction of a new plant: “The whole business has undergone a process of profound change. I cannot claim that it has been without pain, but we have now emerged on the other side with every aspect of our business improved. We are now set up for a really positive future. Pendock has always been an innovator, and we now have all the skills under one roof to leverage that innovation – plus the production flexibility, warehousing and logistics systems to improve our customer service at the same time.”
“Being in direct control of the manufacturing and supply of our products in the UK, rather than importing from overseas producers, enables us to provide immense flexibility to our customers, in terms of the responsiveness and delivery, as well as maintaining tighter cost controls and competitiveness,” explains Hetherington. “Also we’re not subject to the negative effects of currency fluctuations or price hikes imposed by overseas manufacturers.”
This investment at Telford is a key step in the company’s strategy to take direct control over every aspect of quality, customer service and cost; as well as increasing production volumes and reducing delivery times, particularly on bespoke lines. Indeed, lead times on non-standard products and special finishes is now less than half what it was just a year ago.
“Ultimately, this investment and the move to UK manufacturing and control was taken to ensure customer needs and expectations could be met more effectively,” says Hetherington.
Pendock’s product portfolio is currently divided into six clear segments. Pendock Linea offers HVAC casings for interior perimeter services in a wide choice of designs and colours. Pendock Radius offers visually-attractive column casings in plywood, aluminium, stainless steel, GRP and other materials.
Pendock Profiles is a range of practical and versatile casing solutions offered in an unparalleled range of formats and finishes. Pendock Shires – a partnership with the well-known sanitaryware company – offers integrated washroom solutions where the emphasis is very much on value engineering. Pendock Safeheat offers safe, attractive, radiator covers for healthcare applications: now with the option of anti-bacterial protection. Finally, Pendock Underfoot provides simple, effective, underfloor cable and building service management solutions.
Given the growth of MMC across the construction industry, Pendock is confident that its highly engineered, factory-finished products will find an even greater market in the years ahead.
“Our pre-formed pipe casings are around 70% quicker to fit than traditional site-made boxing, which has resulted in continued growth for us in this sector as well as increasing demand for washroom cubicles solutions, particularly from schools. Architects and main contractors still have a keen eye on cost, but demand bespoke products to meet the individual specifications for new build and refurbishment projects,” explains Hetherington.
However, at the same time, the company is acutely aware that cost is still an issue. “We have found that quality and aesthetics are the two key selling points,” says Hetherington. “However, all our products have to be fit-forpurpose to win specification and it is all too easy to over engineer a product. I think our off-the-peg range now fully reflects this balance between capital cost and performance. Bespoke, however, is a completely different ball game. At the start of 2007, bespoke work only accounted for around 7% of our turnover. I would estimate that it is now around 20% and growing: and this is not at the expense of our standard lines.”
Hetherington is very confident that Pendock has a bright future. “In the Summer we will officially unveil our new brand: Pendock Bespoke. This will take us even further up the quality ladder. We will be stressing our track record in design innovation, performance and flexibility. I would like to see this company launch a complete, new range every year. With our new plant we can balance supply and demand much more effectively; while our clients can now utilise all our hard-earned in-house expertise to the full. We have evolved from a sales and marketing driven company to a customer-focused innovative manufacturer and, I must say, it feels great. You can’t argue with unrivalled production flexibility, shorter lead times and enhanced quality. We really are incredibly bullish about Pendock’s future.”
