Seizing a window of opportunity

 In the past five years, Britplas has installed over 15,000 Safevents UK-wide, completing over 250 installations, and even supplying a number of orders to Australia. To meet the growing demand and enable it to further enhance and expand its product range, the company recently moved into a well-equipped 42,000 ft2 office and factory building in Warrington well over twice the size of its former premises, as HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie reports.

Discussing with me at the new Warrington factory in Kingsland Grange the company’s history and, in particular, the phenomenal success it has had with its Safevent window over the past 4-5 years, Britplas’s chairman, Kevin Gorman, explained that, having initially founded Britplas Commercial in 2004 with just two staff, he and his co-directors, Graham Hughes and Colin Duncan, now employ a team of 70, including fitters ‘out in the field’. While in its early days, he explained, the company operated out of a number of what he admitted were ‘fairly basic’ manufacturing units at Warrington’s Winwick Quay, the recent move to the new office and factory unit provides Britplas with a more modern and fit-for-purpose R&D and production environment that he believes will help build on its recent success. In 2010, the last full year for which figures are available, the company’s turnover was almost double that of 2009, reaching £6.2 million.

Output set to double