One of the country’s leading independent corrugated packaging manufacturers, Cepac, has announced a £2m expansion of its site in Rawcliffe Bridge, East Yorkshire.
A new production and warehousing facility of approximately 45,000 sqft at Rawcliffe will enable better workflow and create more storage space, providing greatly increased capability and the platform for continued expansion, according to Cepac.
It will also aims to allow the company to optimise output from its new multi-point gluer (installed a little over a year ago), which itself represents an investment of £750,000.
The Rawcliffe site specialises in bespoke corrugated supply chain solutions, particularly multi-point glued heavyweight board grades for performance applications. This includes regular cases, rotary die cut, flat bed die cut, stitched boxes, palette boxes and pre-print boxes.
Cepac purchased the Rawcliffe site in 2013 and has since more than doubled the turnover with targeted investments, and increased the workforce from 75 to 125. The site’s specialist products are reportedly experiencing increased interest from a wide range of sectors, and the site is a major supplier to Jaguar Land Rover.
The site’s general manager, Richard Moore explained: “The improvements really secure the long-term future of Rawcliffe and underpin its continued growth and our ability to service our customers, in addition to continuing to provide increased employment opportunities for our excellent team.
A significant part of the site’s heritage has been its involvement in the production of paper-based materials for almost 130 years and the site was originally developed for the manufacture of graphic papers.
In the process of digging the foundations for the new buildings some notable artefacts from the factory’s history have been unearthed in the form of 16 granite mill stones.
Moore continued: “The stones are absolutely enormous and, we believe, weigh about four tonnes each. They’re roughly around five feet in diameter and two feet thick. We had no idea they were there. They had been buried in the rubble and then concreted over. We’ve preserved them and plan on making them into an architectural feature to reflect our heritage.”
It is believed that the mill stones were used for grinding wood pulp imported from Scandinavia and transported to the wharfage behind the site via Goole Harbour, a short distance from Rawcliffe.
Ground was broken on the site in early June, with foundations due to be laid in July. Steel work on the new buildings are expected to shortly follow.
