Poundfield is expanding its geographic reach in the UK with the opening of a new precast concrete manufacturing facility. The company, which is part of the SigmaRoc Group, is opening a new site at Wrexham, North Wales, specifically to service Wales and the North West of England.
The expansion, which senior executives say is part of their plans to create the broadest geographical reach of any precast concrete supplier in the UK, complements the company’s existing facility at Ipswich in Suffolk. The new site will initially create about 14 new jobs, with more new employees expected to be required as the facility reaches full production capacity.
As a result of the expansion, and the increased focus on precast concrete solutions, the company has also rebranded from Poundfield Products to Poundfield Precast.
Michael Roddy, Managing Director at Precast Products Group, the platform of SigmaRoc plc of which Poundfield Precast is a member, commented: “The UK expansion is directly in line with the SigmaRoc strategy of invest, improve, integrate and innovate to deliver maximum value for customers and shareholders.
“This is only the beginning of Poundfield Precast’s national expansion. We expect to open more sites across the UK, which will enable us to satisfy the market demand for sustainable precast solutions that can be manufactured and delivered close to the point-of-use.”
In recent years, the market for precast products has been driven by the need to reduce carbon emissions, primarily from the transportation of precast products to site. As a result, Poundfield has developed a range of precast concrete solutions for a wide variety of industries such as traditional construction applications, infrastructure, including highways and rail; agriculture, along with the ports, docks and marine sectors.
The company has also revealed ambitions to take the Poundfield Precast brand into Continental Europe. Roddy concluded: “We are in the process of developing our plans for an expansion into Belgium, which has similar market characteristics to the UK, and offers the opportunity to expand the Poundfield Precast brand into Benelux and Northern France.”
The move into Europe is the latest in a series of major initiatives from SigmaRoc in 2021. It follows the news that from January 2022, every product currently manufactured by SigmaRoc’s Precast Product Group (PPG) – Allen Concrete Ltd, CCP Building Products Ltd and Poundfield Precast Ltd – will be available in a cement-free ultra-low carbon option. The company also launched Greenbloc – the first evet cement-free alternative to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) blocks – in February 2021.
Last month, SigmaRoc entered into a strategic collaboration with Marshalls PLC to develop ultra-low carbon technology within the concrete building materials sector.
