Firm completes £1m factory upgrade

ARVILLE has just completed a £1m upgrade of its fabric coating plant in Bury, Lancashire, following a phased two-year project to overhaul the site.

The 15,000sq ft factory was acquired by Arville in 2000, when the group purchased P&S Textiles to strengthen its portfolio of textile production, and create the capability to manufacture technical fabrics from end-to-end.

Now, layout of the production area has been completely redesigned in line with lean manufacturing principles, to create a highly efficient workflow process from start to finish.

Arville has invested in new coating machinery including a dedicated area for compound mixing, secure chemical storage areas, ventilation systems, new coating heads, a high-speed vulcanising oven, inspection tables and high definition video cameras for in-line quality control.
 
The overall result is a more versatile plant capable of both coating and combining a wide range of bespoke, high performance and high specification technical textiles, for various markets worldwide.

Arville spokesperson Andy Smith said: “With a 60-year heritage, Arville has long been passionate about continued innovation in textiles manufacturing and more recently has undertaken an investment programme to maintain our ‘best in class’ status.
 
“We meticulously planned this extensive refurbishment to ensure we didn’t disrupt production for existing customers, and now, after a two year wait it’s great to have a ‘brand new’ state-of-the-art facility that will stand us in good stead for further growth.”

This news follows an expansion to the factory footprint at Arville’s weaving plant at its base in Wetherby, West Yorkshire where the group employs 60 staff. Additional work to install an extra stenter line has increased the firm’s finishing capacity to keep pace with the growing business. But it seems further investment is also in the pipeline.

Smith said: “We’re part-way through the development of a new IT system which will create a powerful database for our technical textiles manufacturing. It will store every relevant detail about textile projects we undertake – from yarn specifications, weave constructions, inspection and testing reports and more. We’re also set to install a new laser cutting table at our fabrication unit in the coming months.”

“These investments, funded wholly by Arville’s internal resources, show our commitment to keeping the company at the cutting edge of technical textiles production.”