Brick maker builds for the future
A YORKSHIRE brick maker has made a multi million pound investment to take the business forward as it looks to prepare for an upturn in the residential property market.
Twenty-two brick-drying chambers have been installed by Carlton Brick, based in Grimethorpe, Barnsley, in a major investment backed by Yorkshire Bank’s Leeds Financial Solutions Centre (FSC).
Led by managing director Kevin Wilson, Carlton Brick has 60 different brick types, a £6m turnover, 75 staff and sells bricks throughout the UK to builders’ merchants, construction companies, local authorities, house builders and housing associations, as well as self-builds.
The dryers replace an outdated system of 28 chambers, built half a century ago, where air heated by gas burners was circulated using fans and flues.
They have been replaced because the air was expensive to heat and the flues in the dryers were inefficient.
The new dryers, which use hot air recycled from the nearby kiln, have air-tight insulation enabling each 15-metre high chamber to dry 11,000 `green bricks’ in 30 hours rather than the 48 hours it took previously.
Oliver Stephenson, Carlton Brick’s chairman, said: “The downturn has proved to be a useful time for this. We were not able to slow down in 2007 and 2008 because we had to meet our customers’ requirements for secure supplies of brick.
“During the recession demand slowed dramatically and we have carried out this project which puts us in a far stronger position for when construction and property markets improve.”
But he warned: “I remain extremely concerned by the fragile economy. For our industry, the main brick trade is linked to house building. House builders’ fortunes largely depend on sales to first-time-buyers and they are currently experiencing extreme difficulty in obtaining mortgages.
“The mortgage sector must relax its lending before house building can get moving again but I don’t see this happening for at least a year.”
Carlton Brick was founded by a local colliery in 1879, but broke away from it when the coal industry was nationalised after the Second World War.
The company is the UK’s fifth biggest brick business and can produce 34m bricks a year.
Mr Stephenson, whose family have been involved in the business since the 1960s, added: “We are not witnessing any green shoots of recovery yet although winter always represents poor trading for heavy building materials.
“However, we are learning to live with the economic environment. I am looking forward to spring when the building trade normally picks up.”
Yorkshire Bank Leeds FSC business partner, June Hartley, who arranged the Carlton Brick funding, says: “We are helping many forward-thinking businesses which have used the recession to invest for the recovery. Carlton Brick is a top-class business and we’re pleased to have backed them with this fascinating project.”
