Dugdale continues to invest in service
West Yorkshire based Dugdale Ltd is currently finalising its latest round of capital investment since the 2014 MBO, to be completed by the end of 2016.
June 2016 saw a new materials silo and new Battenfeld Cincinatti compounding machine delivered and commissioned. July and August of this year will see the refurbishing of premises and the housing of a new laboratory line, equipped with an integral small scale pilot/product proving compounding line.
The addition of extra mixing and compounding equipment, new silos and warehousing, as well as investment in a laboratory compounding line, raises the total Capital Expenditure above £2 million for the new owners.
Managing director David Outen says that 'Here at Dugdale we are PVC specialists pure and simple. Our core technical team has over 150 years experience of specifying and processing PVC based materials for a variety of applications. The company does not dilute its resources or focus on a range of different polymers but concentrates on the versatility and cost performance of PVC, and we enjoy proving our expertise to our customers, supplying them from concept to complete material solutions, helping their processes and production at their place of manufacture and introducing them to new compounds and new possibilities via our constant product innovation strategy.'
The new owners have grown the Dugdale brand and PVC compound sales through the last three years. Versatile manufacturing is key to Dugdale supply and service together with maximum capability of response times. Production changes are rung through the company's modular arrangement of high-speed mixers and compounding lines designed to allow rapid grade change and prompt customer response whilst maintaining manufacturing efficiencies.
The new team has once again committed Dugdale to Gold Sponsorship of the triennial PVC 2017 event in Brighton at the end of April 2017. 'This is a key event for us,' notes David Outen, 'and we are delighted to once again support it and to network with our peers and our customer base.'
These are busy times for the West Yorkshire compounder. Current levels of customer needs see Dugdale formulating an average of 50 new PVC compounds per month. Colour matching, meeting customer performance requests and price pressures plus legislative changes are the predominant drivers. Further reasons include the need for enhanced weathering, an up lift in physical properties, anti-microbial or anti-fungal requirements, and surface finish modification.
Dugdale's new product development team, led by Dr Jeff Ryan, uses the company's testing and laboratory facilities to first prove the new materials, shipping samples to customers for prior to progressing the new grades to initial trialling and then full production. From design to full approval, each stage of the development and technical service process is focussed on delivering the requirements of the end user. The sustained growth over recent years demonstrates the success of the company's commitment to customer service and the continual focus on development and technical service.
