Hardwood flooring and mouldings manufacturer Atkinson & Kirby Ltd has invested £2.4m in a new site, factory, warehousing and offices.
Managing director Ray Scott said the move to Burscough Road, Ormskirk was necessary as the Wigan Road site – home for the past 80 years – had become outdated and too small.
“We needed to move to more modern and slightly larger premises,” he said.
The company has bought its new 4.5-acre site and built 84,000ft2 of new factory and warehousing. Mr Scott said there was land available for future expansion and that production of wooden flooring and pre-finished mouldings could grow by up to 50%.
The company’s existing machinery has been installed at the new factory and a new extraction system has been put in. Mr Scott hopes to invest in modern finishing lines for painting and spraying in the new year.
He said: “Business has been very good in recent years and we have shown confidence in the industry through this investment. We are poised and ready to move on.”
Atkinson & Kirby has a turnover of £7m a year of wooden flooring while sister company Art Mouldings has a turnover of £4m in pre-finished mouldings.
Mr Scott said: “The new site offers us significantly more production and logistics advantages. Another advantage is we will also be able to increase production capacity in order to keep up with demand from our customers.”
