£9m aluminium factory gets ready for production

A £9million production facility at Nether Heage in Derbyshire is gearing up to open after aluminium extrusion machinery was installed on site.

Garnalex’s new 100,000 sq ft facility will begin manufacturing later this year, and the company will then look to launch an aluminium window system by the end of Q1.

Kirkby in Ashfield-based Joseph Merritt Group was appointed to provide lifting equipment and a mechanical installation team to offload and install an SMS HybrEx extrusion machine and an OMAV furnace at the site.

As a result of its investment Garnalex is now able to extrude 4 tonnes of aluminium an hour.

Ross Hartshorn, technical production director at Garnalex, said: “We are very excited by the purchase of our new equipment and cannot wait to get the facility up and running. Merritts have been the perfect partner to work with throughout the project. Their machinery installation knowledge has been of great value and they have cohesively worked with the OEM engineers to complete works well within the expected timeframe. Their attention to health and safety issues and professionalism when on site has been exemplary and we look forward to working with them on future projects.”

Hartshorn, who established Garnalex in 2018, is best known for founding, growing and selling the PVC-U systems companies Eurocell and Liniar.