£500k upgrade set to supercharge UK manufacturing for SuperFOIL

Added by Love Business East Midlands | 28 April 2022

Lincoln-based insulation manufacturer, SuperFOIL Insulation is set to scale up UK manufacturing with the first of four production-line improvements for 2022.

The company, which is the UK’s leading manufacturer and supplier of foil insulation, will be scaling up the quantity of products manufactured at its headquarters in Lincoln with a series of major investments.

Production of multifoil insulation at the company’s Lincoln headquarters will grow by 60% from May following the installation of custom-built unwinding stations. This will be followed by three further upgrades this year which will enable it to produce 11 times as much insulation in-house as it does at present while also expanding its product range.

The investments, totalling £500,000, will mean that 70% of SuperFOIL products will be made in the UK.

The upgrades are the latest improvements made by the family-owned company, which will have invested more than £1m in productivity improvements since its move to Lincoln’s Boulder Development Park in 2019.

Managing Director of SuperFOIL Insulation, William Bown said:

“Since we moved to Lincoln three years ago, one of our goals has been to dramatically scale-up the quantity of product we can manufacture from raw materials here in the UK. We’ve already made great progress with this and it’s helped us to take on 13 more people in the last three years. Now, we’ve started one of the biggest periods of expansion in our company’s history with the first of four production line improvements scheduled for this year. Ultimately, these will bring us to a point where we can produce 400 rolls of multifoil per day at our Lincoln HQ, as well as producing bigger and more varied sizes of other insulation products. These upgrades will mean we can supply high performance insulation to more and more properties and create loads of new jobs in the city.

“With energy prices soaring and set to climb higher this autumn, insulation offers the best solution for many households to reduce their energy bills now and into the future. Combined with the need for everyone to reduce their carbon footprint, we’re scaling up our productivity so we can help more properties become energy efficient and comfortable, making a real difference to the cost of living and the environment.”

The first upgrade to SuperFOIL’s production line is the installation of a series of unwinding stations which can enable five layers of foam wadding and aluminium foil - the key components of multifoil insulation - to be combined simultaneously. Specially engineered bearings will reduce the force needed to unwind the materials and a built-in replenish system will enable rolls to be rapidly reloaded, without production being stopped.

With the unwinding stations now fully operational, the company will shortly be installing upgraded machinery which will enable its successful range of bubble foil insulation, including its popular garage door insulation kits, RadPack radiator reflectors and pipe insulation, to be produced in more varied dimensions. This will include jumbo rolls for large scale applications as well as smaller rolls for insulating pipework and hard to reach areas.

Following this, the company will make two further improvements to its production line and warehousing which will aid the manufacturing of other product lines while improving efficiency and productivity.

The expanded capacity will also support the creation of 5-10 new jobs in Lincoln and all four upgrades are scheduled to be completed by October 2022.

The investments come after a record year of domestic sales for SuperFOIL in which it saw one of its largest orders to date when it supplied 53,000 rolls of insulation to Aldi over three Specialbuy events and also saw SuperFOIL products being stocked by suppliers including Travis Perkins, Wickes, Yorkshire Trading Company and The Range in addition to major trade wholesalers.

SuperFOIL’s headquarters is located at a former Lincolnshire Co-Op food distribution centre on Pioneer Way in Lincoln. Since the site was acquired by SuperFOIL’s parent company, Boulder Developments in 2019, the vacant site has become home to seven companies including web developer Orisel, Polish food distributor Spiżarnia and Ballards Self Storage.

For more information on SuperFOIL Insulation and its products, please visit www.superfoil.co.uk.

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