SPC Europe currently operates from a plant in North Yorkshire and the move to consolidate production at Westbury coincides with SPC's decision to invest £1.5million in state of the art manufacturing plant. This will increase the company's compounding capacity to over £20million a year.
The investment means SPC will have one of the most modern manufacturing plants in Europe, comprising two production lines with fully automated controls.
SPC has been manufacturing rubber compounds in Whitby, North Yorkshire, for over ten years. It purchased the Westbury site from Avon Rubber in 2008 and has been running the two sites separately since then.
ATR operates from Westbury and was formed following SPC’s purchase of the Westbury site. It has seen significant growth in the first three years of operation.
Paul Hallas, operations manager says "SPC and ATR both manufacture rubber compounds for world renowned customers in the aerospace, automotive, chemical and energy industries. This move simplifies our structure for our customers and will provide economies of scale across the business."
Steve Hallas, managing director adds; "For customers, our relocation means all our manufacturing will be on one site and will use the latest technology. This will enable us to enhance our quality control systems, manage production and materials costs, provide greater production flexibility, maintain a cleaner working environment and further enhance customer service.
"We have planned the move extremely carefully to ensure customers see no interruption of service. An existing production line at Westbury is being maintained and upgraded and when the new line is fully operational we will end production in Whitby. This is expected to be around mid July."
ATR Compounding of Westbury, Wiltshire, has announced new investment of £1.5million in state of the art rubber compound production equipment, creating 20 permanent jobs. ATR is wholly owned by the highly respected SPC Europe Ltd
The substantial investment will provide an additional second state of the art line for the company and provide compounding capacity in excess of £20million per year.
ATR manufactures rubber compounds for world renowned customers in the aerospace, automotive, chemical and energy industries. 65 per cent of ATR products are exported to customers in Asia, Europe and America, bringing in much needed foreign currency
Purchased by parent company SPC Europe in 2008, ATR has grown from six employees to its current 20 strong work force in under three years. The new investment will double employment at the Westbury site to 40 by the end of this year.
Operations Manager Paul Hallas says: "Despite the tough economic times our business is doing extremely well due to our hard working team. This investment is a sign of the companies' confidence in ATR's products, services and team.
"The two new state of the art production lines, with fully automated controls, will make the site one of the most modern plants in Europe. They will help maintain our manufacturing flexibility, efficiency and jobs.
"Our expansion at Westbury means we are able to provide full time, permanent, skilled jobs in engineering and production, giving a much needed boost to local employment."
ATR is establishing a youth apprenticeship scheme and intends to offer two apprenticeships in September.
SPC Europe Ltd has strengthened its management team with the appointment of Brian Flindall as quality manager.
Brian joins from Honda of the UK Manufacturing and has 16 years experience within the rubber industry, including ten years focused on quality management.
He holds a degree in mechanical engineering and his experience includes working with Peradin and Trelleborg followed by five years at Avon Automotive, in a quality focused role. Brian also spent five years at Honda and was responsible for New Model and Supplier Development, focusing on managing suppliers from a quality perspective rather than a purely cost based approach.
Paul Hallas, operations manager at SPC Europe, says: "Brian joins us from a globally respected company, with an excellent reputation for its emphasis on quality and reliability.
"His appointment will bring these attributes to SPC and help strengthen further SPC's reputation as a world class rubber compounder. Brian's role will be to develop our business management standards and ensure we operate to the auditable standards required by the aerospace and automotive industries.
"In addition, Brian will also be developing manufacturing techniques that will reduce our carbon footprint and support our objective of being registered to the ISO 14001 environmental management standard by 2012."
Brian is married with a four year old daughter and lives in Trowbridge.
SPC Europe Ltd has made a new senior management appointment with Sean Kirtley joining as Purchasing Manager.
Sean joins from Avon Automotive and brings significant experience gained in purchasing together with many years of working in technical roles in the Rubber Industry. Sean initially joined Peradin in 1995, working in a technical environment. He moved to Avon Automotive in 2004, working as a development chemist before moving into a senior purchasing role.
Paul Hallas, Operations Manager SPC UK, says: "We are delighted to appoint Sean who brings a unique set of skills to his new role. He joins from a world dominant automotive company that has a strong purchasing strategy; Sean brings both technical and purchasing expertise to SPC.
"With price and availability of raw materials having a major impact on our products and services Sean's role will quickly become critical to our ability to remain competitive on a world stage.
"This is a significant appointment for SPC and our customers. With demand for raw materials increasing around the world and material costs continuing to rise, Sean's appointment means we have a dedicated purchasing manager able to focus full time on strategic purchasing; covering material costs, supplier relationships and lead times for product availability.
Living in Frome Sean is an avid family man with his partner and four year old daughter.
ATR Compounding has achieved another major milestone in its rapid development since joining SPC Europe ltd. After less than 12 months, ATR has successfully gained ISO 9001:2008 registration.
ISO 9001 remains the World’s leading quality endorsement, and currently sets the standard within approximately 900,000 quality-conscious organisations in no less than 170 different countries around the world.
Significantly, although top class quality assurance procedures are one essential prerequisite of the approval, on their own they are not enough. It is also necessary to demonstrate top class management practices on a much broader scale.
ATR’s achievement is the more remarkable given the short time since it became part of SPC Europe, and is further testimony not only to SPC’s overriding commitment to product quality, but also to the high standards of management and business performance set within the Group.
For SPC’s customers, this development encourages even greater confidence in the company and its products. Not only that, but it also enhances and simplifies customers’ own quality assurance procedures – especially when they themselves need to meet ISO 9001 requirements. In this way ATR Compounding now offers its customers an additional competitive advantage.
SPC Europe has taken another key step forward in its development, with the launch of its new web site.
In October 2008 SPC Europe Limited achieved the most significant single advance in the Company’s history, with the acquisition of the €22M ATR Compounding plant in Westbury, UK.