Somerset manufacturer targets turnover of £50m by 2025
A Somerset manufacturer which specialises in making life saving materials is aiming to hit revenues of £50m by next year.
Bridgwater-based Nonwovenn makes a fabric that can stem bleeding at its factory and its product has helped to save lives on the front line in Ukraine.
Nonwovenn makes the special bandages on behalf of medical dressings business Celox – a company owned by UK medical device firm Medtrade Products.
The bandages are coated with an extract from shrimp shells – known as chitosan – that can stem bleeding, and hundreds of thousands have been sent to Ukraine to be used in first aid kits.
Soldiers on the front line can pack the bandages into bullet or shrapnel wounds and the clotting agents can stop bleeding as quickly as 60 seconds.
The firm is now looking to diversify into new areas and products as it plans to grow its business.
The firm is projected to exceed £40m in turnover for 2023, hopefully £46m through the new year and £52m for 2025.
For the last 17 years out of 20, Nonwovenn has been growing revenue and profits – despite the setback of the pandemic.
Nonwovenn employs 205 staff in the South West and with new manufacturing capacity coming on stream it expects to have 225 staff based in the region this year, making us one of the south-west largest, independent employers.
As well as the Celox bandages, Nonwovenn’s Bridgwater factory also makes harm reduction products for customers around the world, including activated carbon masks that safeguard workers making mobile phones for Samsung.
It also produces similar masks for Deliveroo cyclists to stop them breathing in traffic pollution.
Other products made by the firm include undercast bandages used in making plaster casts for broken bones, for the NHS; and protective suits for security forces clients around the world.
Chairman David Lamb said: “The common thread across our product lines is harm reduction.
“Our specialist materials are used in bandages which are stopping Ukrainian soldiers bleeding to death as well as in oral nicotine pouches which are helping smokers around the world to switch from cigarettes.”
He added: “We also make protective fabric for suits used by emergency workers encountering fires, radiation and biological threats as well as activated charcoal masks used to stop people inhaling toxins in their work environment. This is all hi-specification material for demanding clients.”
