John Brash & Co. has completed the second stage of its near-£1m investment this year with the hope of significantly improving productivity, capacity and health and safety at its Gainsborough headquarters.
The UK graded timber roofing battens, shingles and shakes, scaffold boards, and commercial anti-slip decking manufacturer has unveiled improvements to its premises in a £200,000 joint venture with its haulage partner, JME Transport. The Manchester-based haulier has part-funded work to create 60% more space for the heavy goods vehicles loading up its products for delivery around the UK.
Previously, there was only enough room for nine lorries at any one time, but now the company can accommodate up to 24 lorries (eight of which can use its new loading bays) – meaning one lorry will be leaving John Brash & Co. every 30 minutes from 6am to 10pm every day.
The investment has also seen:
- The creation of a new outer roadway around the site that will stop side loaders having to reverse out of alleyways.
- The installation of new heavy-duty cantilever racking with a roof system to store timber roofing battens, decking and its JB-Red timber roofing battens.
- More than 1,000 new LED, solar-powered, LUX-sensitive cats eyes installed in lorry parking bays to assist reversing at night and installed around walkways to guide pedestrians in the yard.
- A new CCTV system replacing the old one.
- The installation of a new drainage system to cut down on surface water in the yard.
- The installation of new concrete alley runs between rows of stored timber.
The chairman of John Brash & Co, Christian Brash said: “It is a proud day for everyone at John Brash & Co. and JME Transport, as it is another symbol of our aspirations for growth and the commitment our business is making to ensure that we continue to be the market leader in graded timber roofing battens, shingles and shakes, scaffold boards and commercial anti-slip decking.
“The single biggest benefit is that we have created more capacity in our yard through the use of more reclaimed land, as well as the more efficient configuration and better use of storage to make sure we get more lorries in and out faster. This, in turn, will improve the productivity of some of our logistics processes to keep up with the growth in demand for our products.
“Whilst the first two are vital for our business, the third point is the most important – and that’s ensuring a safe working environment for every John Brash and JME Transport employee and contractor. The improvements will help us to achieve even more stringent health and safety vigilance across the site. Particularly with the introduction of the new loading bays, there is now greater visibility for our team of forklift drivers.”
The investment in the yard follows the March unveiling of Goldeneye, the roofing batten scanning line that aims to increase the speed at which John Brash & Co. grades roofing battens. Christian says the introduction of the new machine at a total cost of nearly £750,000 has enabled John Brash & Co. to treble its production of its JB-Red and Goldeneye has nearly doubled the operational line speed of the company’s previous system, reportedly running at well over 30 times the speed of good visual grading.
Christian Brash added: “The huge sums we have invested this year have all been focused around improving our capability not to meet but to exceed the new British Standard BS 5534:2014 for roofing products, as well as improving our premises so that we can increase our capacity to manufacture the very best products in the marketplace.”
