And within months of opening, the new plant has moved to 24/5 production to cope with volumes of work, and aims to shortly add extra injection moulding machines and take on five new staff.
Airflow PMD (Plastics Mould Division) also operates from a second site close to Airflow’s headquarters in New Milton, Hampshire. At that site, production and assembly has also just increased to double shifts. Across the two sites, the moulding division operates 14 machines ranging from 25 to 485 tons.
Airflow managing director Lionel Huish said: “We have manufactured plastics in-house since internalising the moulding process for our plumbers and builders products in 2001 and it has grown steadily.
“Now PMD handles contract plastics moulding for high street products that are sold around the world - products as varied as Christmas tree stands and the container of a world-famous lip balm.
“Our team works closely with its moulding clients and gets involved at an early stage, including product concept, modeling, CAD design, liaison with toolmakers, moulding to a maximum machine size of 485 tons, assembly, testing and packaging.”
The company’s original ventilation business – Airflow (Nicoll Ventilators) Ltd – now operates 24/7 at New Milton producing its ever-expanding, own-brand product range for builders and plumbers merchants, which includes buckets and tools. During 2011 it will develop its manufacturing process and increase its marketing to the plumbing/building sector.
Since employing 20 new staff during 2010, Airflow now employs 50 staff across its three manufacturing sites.
www.airflow-vent.co.uk Photography by Phil Dowding
