Robust UK has moved to a new £6 million production facility. The steel door manufacturer has relocated to its brand-new factory on Lymedale Business Park, in Newcastle-under-Lyme – more than double the size of its previous premises in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent.
£4 million has been invested into new machinery which will increase capacity, reduce lead times and provide smoother fabrication and precision.
The firm, which employs over 150 staff and manufactures many thousands of door sets every year to customers across the UK, has more than 40 years’ experience in making custom-made steel door solutions.
The company’s custom-built powder coating line is also now one of the largest in the UK, as a result of the move.
Expansion plans
Robust UK was founded in 1999 and supplies an extensive range of products including fire and security doors, personnel doors, and glazed and louvered options. All doors are custom built to order.
The door manufacturer, who became part of the Novoferm Group in 2019, has ambitious plans for the new facility with a target to grow by 50% by 2030 and beyond.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held to mark the site’s official opening, attended by a number of industry guests including the Novoferm chief executive Rainer Schackmann, Tony Doba, director/senior managing executive officer and Kaz Tanaka, general manager at Sanwa Holdings Corporation (Novoferm’s parent company).
Commercial director Paul Williams said: “From humble beginnings from our first site in Tean we have grown exponentially. We are proud to operate in Staffordshire and it was vitally important to us that Robust UK’s new home remained in the county. We needed to find the perfect location not just to meet our specific manufacturing needs but the right site for our staff too. Lymedale Business Park is just that. It’s in a great position with bigger, better, fantastic facilities which will ultimately benefit our customers.
He added: “The factory move is just the start of a very exciting time for Robust and heralds the beginning of a major financial investment by Novoferm in the company’s future-growth plans. Times are difficult for UK manufacturing so to be able to invest over £6m in our future and celebrate our success is something all of us at Robust are very proud of.”
Vertical space in the new site has been maximised with Kardex towers and racking – providing more efficiencies than the ground footprint would suggest.
