Bridgnorth Aluminium creates 65 new jobs after £41m investment
A SHROPSHIRE rolling mill is to invest £41m in its research and development facilities in a move which is set to create 65 new jobs.
Bridgnorth Aluminium, which serves the graphics sector, is also set to expand its lithosheet rolling and finishing capacity at Bridgnorth.
Bridgnorth Aluminium is the only aluminium rolling mill in the UK for coiled products. The company, located in Bridgnorth, operates a casthouse, hot and cold rolling mills and finishing lines. The company specialises in lithographic coils for use in the graphics industry, and foilstock coils for use in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
The company employs approximately 300 people and reported revenues of £180m in 2013, of which approximately 90% was exported. The company is a joint venture, owned 75% by Elval, of Greece, and 25% by UACJ Corporation of Japan.
The R&D laboratory, which will come into operation in early May, is a newly-constructed facility and is in addition to the company’s current development facilities and the R&D centres in Greece and Japan.
The new lithosheet capacity expansion consists of the installation of an additional cold rolling mill and a new litho finishing line. The capacity of the new production processes is around 75,000 tonnes per year, more than doubling the company’s current capacity. The scheduled start-up of the new processes is late 2015.
Simon MacVicker, managing director, said: “Bridgnorth Aluminium has always been focused on the needs of our customers in the graphics market, and these projects allow us to further improve our technology offering and also provide more capacity at a time when few aluminium companies wish to dedicate resources to this segment.
“This segment is driven by technology, our customers are constantly evolving their products and processes in order to satisfy the demands of the downstream value chain in printing, our new investments will support them by offering technology innovation, improved logistics and additional capacity.”
He also emphasised that the new laboratory in Bridgnorth would allow the company to be more dynamic in its innovation and reduce the time to market of its technology improvements.
The 65 new jobs are in addition to the 35 new jobs which the company has created in 2013.
