Primer Mould manufacturer W Howard Ltd has built 15,000ft2 of extra warehousing at its Manchester site to meet rising demand and help handle picking and despatch of primed MDF profiles.

The new building will have a dedicated bay for each of the 100-plus Primer Mould stock items, which, says the company, will “increase efficiency of supply to merchants”.

The next development phase will be see the existing warehouse racked out to create individual handpicking bays for the supply of split packs, another growing part of the business.

Including the building, racking and new lift trucks, the development has cost £500,000.

Managing Director Jonathan Grant said that the plant and equipment was all selected to provide “maximum efficiency and flexibility”.

“We decided ultimately on a combination of four multi-directional fork lift trucks operating with a guided rail racking system,” said Mr Grant. “The trucks have a fork spread of up to 3.2m, reducing the potential for damage to mouldings, and really speed up loading times. The racking system lets us store much more product – five times the number of packs – making production more efficient.”

He added that the new vehicles and racking provided improved health and safety, with the extra wide spread resulting in safer handling and less wastage. The trucks were also more fuel efficient.

Mr Grant said that the company had to invest to ensure it met delivery deadlines in the face of rapidly rising demand.

“We are also introducing an additional shift to our second production line to increase output of specials,” he said, “equipment is being upgraded to speed up throughput, and extra staffing has been added to internal sales to help manage the handling and fulfilment of orders.”