Fire resistant glass specialist Promat UK completes major new factory programme

Promat UK, one of the country’s leading manufacturers of fire, thermal and acoustic insulation solutions, has completed its multi-million pound development programme to create a new headquarters and manufacturing plant in Lancashire.

The 66,000 sq. ft. facility – The Innovation Centre – at Heywood near Manchester gives Promat UK a state of the art platform to grow its business and respond to the growing demand for high performance insulation and reliable passive fire protection in all markets, including the door, window and industrial sectors. The completion of the move comes as Promat UK announces that it has also now achieved its transition to the 2015 updates to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, the two key internationally recognised quality and environmental management standards.

The site manufactures a wide range of products from the company’s portfolio, which includes glass brands such as PYROCET®, PYROSEC® and SMOKESTREAM®, along with its complete glazing solution SYSTEMGLAS®, which is rapidly growing in popularity in the market due to its unique a 360 degree ‘wheel of assurance’ for architects and clients. Promat UK’s insulation products including DALFRATEX® – used in glass manufacturing and heavy industry processing – are also produced at the new plant.

The two-year Heywood development programme, which has doubled Promat UK’s production space and increased staff numbers by 20%, has seen the company relocate its HQ from its original home in Bracknell, and integrate its made-to-order workshop and specialist solutions operations that were previously located at Bromborough on the Wirral. The new factory serves clients in all industry sectors across the UK, with four new purpose-built CNC machines ensuring that bespoke products are precision manufactured to the highest quality standards.

The new factory is also designed with sustainability at its core, with a comprehensive extraction system ensuring that production dust is collected to be re-used in other fire protection products. The plant is also evolving to be a zero landfill waste operation by 2020.

Ian Cowley, General Manager at Promat UK says: “The completion of our relocation programme and creation of this superb new facility cements our place at the forefront of the UK fire protection market. We are delighted that so many of our team have relocated with us to ensure we maintain the highest level of technical expertise and consistency in points of contact for clients.
“It’s an exciting time for the business and the realisation of our goal to establish an industrial hub in the North West of England, where there is a great talent pool in manufacturing and excellent supporting networks.”

Part of international building product manufacturing group the Etex Group, Promat UK has been producing fire, thermal and acoustic protection solutions for more than 30 years. In addition to its range of fire resistant glass, which offers both integrity and insulation (EI) and integrity only (E) solutions, the company manufactures market leading high performance solutions which are used in numerous hi-tech, engineering and industrial sectors. These range from Formula One racing, train rolling stock and aircraft manufacture, to offshore wind turbines, the nuclear industry and white goods.