British-owned Autins Group is setting up its fifth manufacturing site across Europe as part of a venture to bring a new high performance insulation material to market.
Autins Group manufactures lightweight thermal and acoustic materials for the automotive and marine sectors, and has taken out a lease on a 47,000 sqft factory at the Birch Coppice Business Park in Tamworth, Staffordshire.
The site will be home to Solar Nonwovens Ltd., the latest company in the Autins portfolio; which also encompass sites in Sweden and Germany as well as its headquarters in Rugby.
Related articles:
- Secretary of State sees innovation at work at automotive firm
- Automotive supplier doubles staff
- Anglo-Indian partnership sees British firm expand operations
Solar Nonwovens will be manufacturing lightweight micro-fibre Neptune at the new factory, using innovative technology brought in from Korea.
As part of a £4m investment in the site, Autins has shipped over a new advanced machine from Korea which was transported in 14 containers, arriving at Tamworth earlier this month.
Believing this represents a significant milestone for the company, Autins’ CEO, Jim Griffin commented: “We are delighted to have found a suitable site for Solar Nonwovens to start producing Neptune.
“With such large and sophisticated hi-tech equipment, it wasn’t easy to find a unit that fulfilled all our production needs.”
Solar Nonwovens aims to have commercial production up and running by the autumn, with full production of up to three lines in 2017. Neptune can be used to make products quieter and more thermally efficient in numerous sectors, including automotive; rail; marine; agriculture, and apparel.
Griffin added: “Neptune is a really exciting product offering superior acoustic, thermal and lightweight properties for a range of applications.
“As the exclusive European suppliers, Birch Coppice will be the only site where Neptune will be manufactured anywhere across the UK and the continent.”
Such are the demands of producing Neptune that a special two mega-watt sub-station is being constructed alongside the Solar Nonwovens unit.
The move tops off an exciting period of growth for the company who are also in the process of establishing a research and development facility at HORIBA MIRA Technology Park in Warwickshire.
