Production recommences at South Holmwood

Ibstock continue restart programme with reopening of key brick factory in south-east England

PRODUCTION has recommenced at Ibstock’s South Holmwood facility in Surrey, as the company continues to ramp up activity nationwide.

The facility reopened its doors at the start of September as part of Ibstock’s wider programme of phased reopening, which will see the majority of our UK factories operational again within the next few weeks.

Ibstock say they have worked closely with partners and customers across the construction supply chain to understand key market demands and customer requirements as the building industry gathers pace in its recovery from lockdown. This growing demand and close collaboration with customers has directly informed which factories should reopen and when.

South Holmwood is an important part of Ibstock’s nationwide factory network, located in the heart of south-east England, the largest region for brick consumption in the country. As one of the largest brick factories in the South East, it supplies bricks to a wide range of customers with a product range that is particularly popular for new-build housing.

Adam Foster, regional production director at Ibstock Brick, said: ‘Sitting at the heart of the UK construction industry supply chain, we understand how important it is to get Britain building again, and help lead the UK’s economic revival.

‘We’ve been closely monitoring how demand for our products has been increasing over the past few months and have been reopening our production facilities to ensure we can continue to support our customers as activity levels grow.

‘The phased reopening has been completed in line with the latest government guidelines on hygiene and distancing, ensuring employees can be confident every precaution has been implemented as they return to site.

‘Among the measures we’ve introduced are designated sanitation stations at facilities’ entrances and exits, innovative fever-screening technology, the remapping of factory floors to ensure teams can effectively socially distance and the full complement of PPE for all on-site employees.’

Mr Foster continued: ‘It’s been great to see many of our factories starting to reopen over the past few weeks and the resumption of production at South Holmwood is another important step forward for our business.

‘Looking at the construction industry as a whole, we are seeing encouraging signs of recovery, progress we hope to see continue throughout autumn. We are well placed to meet the anticipated further growth in demand and are looking forward to reopening our remaining factories in the coming weeks.’