Beesley & Fildes invests £1.2m in Widnes timber mill
29 August 2022Family-owned builders’ merchant group Beesley & Fildes has invested £1.2m in its timber milling facility in Widnes in response to increase demand for both timber stock items across the company’s branch network and bespoke orders.
The timber mill, acquired by Beesley & Fildes in 2004, produces the skirting, architraves, flooring, planed timber, door casings and certified fire door casing kits sold across the company’s 11-branch network and online.
It also fulfils bespoke orders from both the branches and customers, including matching legacy timber features and providing like-for-like timber details for heritage projects.
The £1.2m investment is designed to increase efficiency and throughput.
The investment includes two new Weinig planing and profiling lines (a P3000 and P1500), which will replace the mill’s existing planing equipment, enabling increased throughput, fast set-up and a quality finish at the Beesley & Fildes timber mill.
“The new Weinig P3000 planing and profiling line will allow us to process up to 120 linear metres of timber per minute – a 600% increase on our existing equipment,” said Paul Causer, Beesley & Fildes’ timber mill manager explains:
Also included in the new investment programme is a new, British-made, fully-automated Stenner re-saw that will convert timber for the production of skirting boards, fence panels and feather-edged boarding.
The new re-saw provides Beesley & Fildes with industry-leading re-saw technology, increased capacity and broader in-house processing capabilities to boost supply chain reliability for customers.
Beesley & Fildes has also acquired a small saw from Stenner to replace another legacy machine, providing additional capacity for angle fillets and feather edged timber.
From cross-cutting machine manufacturer Stromab, Beelsey & Fildes has bought an automated cross-cutting machine that will enhance the range of door casing and certified fire door casing sets the company can offer across its branch network.
The machine will be used to produce 12 door casing variants - six different casing widths, with two alternative aperture sizes - along with certified fire door casings that will have a pre-profiled recess for intumescent material.
Investment in all five machines has been co-ordinated with an upgrade to the mill’s extraction system and tool room.
