Westcountry Glass, part of the Cornwall Glass Group, has made its largest investment in 37 years of trading. The insulated glass (IG) sealed unit manufacturer, previously located in Saltash, has now relocated to a new factory in Plymouth. The new building is four times the size of its previous site.
The new factory was officially opened by Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Councillor Dr John Mahony, who cut the ribbon with Westcountry Glass company director, Mark Norcliffe.
The new building houses a range of state-of-the-art equipment, including a new toughening plant and CNC processor; an AG-Series gapless forced connection glass tempering furnace; an Intermac CNC Master 33; automated concertina racks and two new jumbo Intermac cutting tables; one for laminated glass and the other for float (monolithic) glass.
In addition, there is a new Bystronic IG line with first production on Thermobar warm edge spacer from Thermoseal Group. This line will produce up to 2,700 x 5,000mm size units, double and triple glazed.
An investment approaching £5million has reportedly been allocated to the project, with a view to create an additional 40 jobs over the next two years, to add to the group’s current workforce of 240.
Aside from this milestone investment, the group’s other two major manufacturing sites (St Austell, Cornwall and Highbridge, Somerset) have made substantial investments in waterjet cutting, straight line edgers processing and sealed unit lines.
Louise Oldham, marketing manager at the Cornwall Glass and Glazing Group said:
“Thermoseal Group are our preferred and trusted partner in all IGU related matters. Our close relationship with Colin Cook, our regional sales manager from Thermoseal, is much valued and we look forward to developing the relationship for many years to come.
Mark Norcliffe said: “The new expansion will see Westcountry Glass’ delivery routes go up the M5 corridor and across the M4, growing the reach of the Cornwall Glass Group to new counties and customers, with exciting new possibilities”.
The new production facility is now fully operational at Langage in Plymouth, Devon.
