Sweeping success as Loughborough manufacturer posts record output

Charles Bentley & Son, the Louughborough brush manufacturer, says it has doubled its output in two years.

For the first time, the firm has made more than two million brooms within 12 months, after an investment in new equipment.

The company invested £400,000 in a brush filling machine in 2015 and has spent two years increasing efficiency within its production line in order to increase capacity by a third.

In 2014, prior to the installation of the new equipment, Charles Bentley & Son produced 1.4 million brooms per annum, compared to 2.02 million in 2017 – an increase of 29%.

When compared to its production quantity in 2007, when it produced 599,734 brooms, the company has increased production by 70% in 10 years.

Charles Bentley, managing director at Charles Bentley & Son, said: “This is a significant achievement and is thanks to our improved output over the last two years. The investment in a new brush filling machine has allowed us to increase production to 1,200 brush tufts per minute across our wooden brushware lines.

“This advanced equipment and our efforts to improve efficiency across the whole of our production line has helped us reach this milestone of manufacturing two million brooms in a year for the first time. However, we will continue to concentrate our efforts on increasing production quantities, without compromising on quality.

“As a company with more than 155 years behind us, it is imperative we continue to invest in new machinery and these results mean that we can pass improvements on to our customers. Shorter lead times and increased output mean we can produce and ship products quicker than ever.”

Charles Bentley & Son Ltd was formed in 1860, starting out providing brushes to Victorian chimney sweeps. The company is still owned by the original Bentley family, and is now a multi-million pound operation, with specialisms in the industrial cleaning, household and gardening sectors.

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