Milestone for engineering firm with award of £2m patent

Manchester-based engineering company, Whitham Mills, has been granted a £2m patent after designing an award-winning solution for a multibillion-pound grocer.

Whitham Mills has a long history of innovation, however, this material-handling patent represents a milestone for the business which has grown significantly in the past five years and recently moved into a 30,000 sq ft manufacturing facility.

Previously devised for use on XPO Logistics sites, the innovative solution has now gathered sales of nearly £2m and been successfully installed in another top-five grocer, and is currently being adapted to tip return packages for an international retailer with more than 1,000 stores worldwide.

The UK grocer first approached Whitham Mills in 2015 with a question: “How can we empty backhauled food waste from roll cages in the most cost effective and efficient way?”

The Whitham Mills team designed, prototyped and then rolled-out their tipping solution across 10 distribution sites nationwide, and is now their preferred supplier of equipment and maintenance nationwide for their waste management machinery.

Saving more than £1.2m in the first year, post installation, the tipping solution has halved the number of operators required to empty each roll cage, as well as saving more than five minutes of ‘empty’ time per cage.

Ben Smart, managing director of Whitham Mills, said: “The whole patent process has taken us just shy of five years to complete, during which time our innovative solution has won multiple accolades within the waste management community and now we are seeing other industries interested in how our solution could be applied to their market to help them streamline their operation processes.

“Our designers and engineers have been questioning the way big business deals with waste and have been devising many solutions to suit the individual needs of our customers.

“The Whitham Mills team are innovators who solve problems which no other equipment manufacture seems to be doing, all while delivering a second-to-none service.”

He added: “We are excited about leading the waste management market of the future by investing in manufacturing techniques and innovative engineering.”