The award-winning Cornwall Group is positioning itself for major expansion, with acquisition talks and work on a new glass processing facility in Somerset. Group chair Mark Mitchell said that the company’s strategy of putting resources in place before requiring them has allowed it to be agile as new opportunities arise.
“We’ve already made it clear that we are very open to the idea of buying existing businesses that allow us to expand our product range or our geographical reach,” he said. “But we can only do that if we are in a position to do so.”
This state of readiness, Mark believed, was one reason why the business had fared better than most during the pandemic: “It has gone better than we could have hoped for,” Mark added. “To say that nearly two years have been pandemic related and we have plans to expand and acquire is really something.”
Mark revealed that several approaches were made to him in December and January: “These aren’t necessarily distress sales,” he said. “A lot of organisations have reflected on what they need and it is part of a general trend towards consolidation as the latest trends in glass definitely point towards a greater need for specialist machinery.”
Cornwall Group also has ‘significant’ infrastructure plans in the pipeline, with the construction of a new £6m facility at Highbridge, Somerset. The location was selected because of its proximity to the M5 and M4 and the opportunities if offers to expand the group’s reach further east. The project will see approximately £3.5m spent on a new furnace, unit line, heat soak ovens and a specialist lamination line. Some 30 jobs are to be created.
“Toughened laminate used to be an aspirational purchase, but many projects are now specifying it either because of regulations or because designers are pushing the limits of glass, such as walk-on roofs,” added Mark. For more about the business, visit www.cornwallglass.co.uk.
