Cornwall Group is on target to invest £5 million in plant, machinery and IT over the next 18 months, which will help us to improve efficiency, train colleagues, and maintain the high levels of quality our company is known for.
This figure is in addition to our acquisition of Birmingham-based Forward Glass which we announced in December 2023.
Key areas of investment will be plant and machinery, IT, and the group’s high-profile apprenticeship scheme.
“Plant and machinery is at the forefront of most of that £5 million in 2024 and 2025, including two toughening plants,” Cornwall Group’s Chair Mark Mitchell said. “As a growing group of glass businesses, our investment must be strategic. There are several parts to the group and they all would like something different and new, so we definitely have a plan.
“Hopefully it won’t be thrown off course with inflation and the state of the economy. But we take a longer view than businesses that have multiple stakeholders. Our view is with an eye on the five-to-ten-year horizon, which means we are fit for purpose, and on the front foot, when the market recovers.
“We want to be leading the market rather than playing catch up.”
Cornwall Group – which includes Mackenzie Glass, Cornwall Manufacturing, commercial glazing and retail arm Cornwall Glass & Glazing, and the newly acquired Forward Glass – has a policy of ploughing profits back into our business, into people, machinery and buildings.
“We’ve got a very simple shareholder model, and we want to continue to grow a sustainable business, not one driven by short-term growth,” Mark said.
Investment in 2023 included a new fire saw, cutting line, and bevelling and processing equipment at Mackenzies; a new heat soak oven at our company’s site in Plymouth, which can handle large units up to 4.2m x 2.7m; and a new £1.5m Bystronic Sealed Unit Line at our St Austell site, which replaced a similar line that was installed 20 years ago.
“We are confident that this approach is the best way to continue building a business that is fit for the next generation of glass professionals,” Mark concluded.
For more information, please call 01726 66325 email info@cornwallglass.co.uk or log on at www.cornwallglass.co.uk .