Manufacturer on the move after grant booster
MANUFACTURER Surface Transforms is to move its factory from Ellesmere Port to Knowsley after receiving substantial financial incentives from the local council and the Regional Growth Fund.
The AIM-listed company, which makes ceramic brakes mostly used in sports cars, has signed heads of terms for a 55,000 sq ft building at Knowsley Business Park, which is more than four times as big as its current site.
The move has been encouraged by a £500,000 package from Merseyside Special Investment Fund – of a £200,000 grant and a zero interest loan of £300,000 funded by the Regional Growth Fund – with Knowsley Council also offering financial support.
It was a condition of the grant that the planned factory expansion is within Liverpool City Region. Surface Transforms’ existing site is a couple of miles outside Wirral and sits in Chester West and Cheshire.
Surface Transforms’ chief executive Kevin Johnson described the deal as “a significant milestone in the development of the company”.
He added: “The recent half year statement included details of one aerospace and five automotive ‘game changing’ contracts which, if all were successfully concluded, would in total, build up to £15m per annum of sales in the period 2018 to 2020.
“Our current site is insufficient for a company of that size and we have therefore been searching for a new site which can both cope with this ‘pilot plant’ demand level as well as providing further space for target sales beyond £15m per annum in subsequent years.”
The company will occupy the 2.1 acre site in two phases – taking 30,000 sq ft in September and the remaining 25,000 sq ft from September 2019. Its £300,000 loan is repayable in accelerating amounts from May 2019 to May 2022.
