Record production month as manufacturer secures £1m sales boost
One of the UK’s oldest hot dip galvanisers has recorded its highest ever volume from a single facility in July, with over £1m of new customer orders secured since returning from lockdown.
Corbetts the Galvanizers, which celebrates 160 years in business in 2020, says it has seen a 48% rise in volumes from the fencing sector, with ‘wins’ also achieved in utilities, infrastructure and transport.
It is processing all of this demand in just one plant after taking the decision to temporarily close its other facility until early 2021,a move which the company says has meant doing ‘more for less’.
In June, the company announced 17% more output than average performance and this rose a further 7% in July, driven mainly by investment in operational efficiencies and a bespoke loading system.
“We are bouncing back from what has been a very difficult period and volatile sales thanks to the impact of Covid-19,” explained Sophie Williams, finance director and general manager at Corbetts the Galvanizers.
“Some tough decisions had to be made early on and we chose to close Plant A and focus on trying to get more performance out of just one facility. This has really paid off, with average output at an all-time high and some excellent new customer wins that will generate about £1m of additional revenues.”
She added “Our workforce has been outstanding, embracing the changes we had to make and throwing themselves into the best practice training we have been rolling out. This means we now only have two people left on furlough.
“Volumes and demand still remain fairly sporadic, but we are seeing a general push from the majority of our customers to get production capacities back up to 100% sooner rather than later.”
