Leading West Midlands manufacturer secures space for new venture

A WEST Midlands manufacturer and entrepreneur has selected IM Properties’ flagship Birch Coppice Business Park as the site of his latest venture.

Jim Griffin’s Rugby-based Autins Group has taken 47,500 sq ft of industrial space at the site, which is now being fitted out for his new Solar Non-Woven business.

The company specialises in supplying advanced insulation to manage noise and heat emissions for many of the world’s leading automotive marques, and the new company will manufacture a new type of micro-fibre insulation never previously used outside Korea.

“It’s a remarkable product, it’s lighter and thinner than anything available, but it out-performs everything currently on the market,” said Mr Griffin.

“The commercial potential was huge, not just for automotive, but for many other sectors, including agriculture, apparel and aerospace, so after months of discussions, we are delighted that the Korean company which invented this material has granted us a licence to manufacture and sell it in Europe.”

The first production line alone has meant a £4m investment, and the power requirements are so great that IMP is constructing a special two mega-watt sub-station alongside his unit.

In total, 14 shipping containers were needed to bring the special manufacturing kit to the site from South Korea, 5,500-miles away.

For Mr Griffin, the new venture marks the latest growth phase for Autins, which expects to hit turnover of £25m in the current financial year, and numbers Aston Martin, Bentley, BMW, JLR, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota, Volvo and VW among the customers, which rely on its innovative products.

For IM Properties, the new venture confirms the wisdom of its decision to launch a £50m investment programme at the 400-acre Birch Coppice site last September.

The project has seen 500,000 sq ft of speculative industrial space added to the company’s portfolio.

Kevin Ashfield, the group’s UK development director, said the unit taken by Solar Non-Woven was the first of five units being brought forward to tackle the dearth of high-quality industrial space across the Midlands.

“The old adage about speculating in order to accumulate is never truer than in property development, and the supply of available space in this region has been contracting since the recession,” he said.

“It was obviously a big decision to invest £50m on a speculative basis, but our long-term strategy is all about investing for future returns, and we were confident that as these units came forward, there would be significant interest.

“Equally, it’s crucial to make sure a range of sizes are available to suit the needs of occupiers with different requirements, so whilst this unit is 47,250 sq ft, the largest of the five will be 282,000 sq ft.”

Autins has signed a 15-year lease on the site.

The security of that has enabled the property firm to press on with two further units and these are expected to be completed later in the summer.

The agents for Birch Coppice are CBRE, Colliers International and Eagleton & Co.