Member Article

Lynx Precast moves in at former Rio Tinto smelter site in Ashington following £1m investment

Lynx Precast Limited, has taken up residence at the former Rio Tinto smelter site in Ashington.

The company, which specialises in the design, manufacture and installation of precast concrete flooring systems for the UK construction industry, is the only hollowcore slab manufacturer in the North East. Lynx selected the site, which is now owned by brownfield regeneration company, Harworth Estates, due to its strategic location and the range of large-scale industrial buildings.

Andy Teasdale, managing director of Lynx Precast and his business partner Paul Cutler has invested over £1m pounds in the new plant, which also produces beam and block flooring and insulated flooring systems.

In setting up the new plant, Lynx was awarded £262,800 from the Northumberland Business Growth programme. Designed to create jobs, the programme was funded by the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) and delivered by Arch in conjunction with Northumberland County Council.

Since launching in January 2014, Lynx Precast has increased its workforce to 28 and has a projected turnover of £6 million in 2016. The team includes draftsmen, estimators, technicians, fabricators and installers.

Lynx Precast managing director, Andy Teasdale, said: “It’s been an amazing start for the business and fantastic to realise my ambition to create a large scale precast flooring production facility that manufactures both T beams and hollowcore slab in the region.

“We are using the very latest software, manufacturing techniques and equipment and feel very confident that we can consistently design and manufacture products to the very highest standards. The construction industry is steadily recovering after being hard hit during the recession and our order book reflects that.

“We’ve got some fantastic customers ranging from independent housebuilders looking for bespoke flooring solutions to major regional and national developers including Bellway, Persimmon and Esh Group, builders’ merchants and groundworks specialists.”

Together, Andy and Paul bring over 44 years of industry expertise to the business.

Andy was one of the founders of Spancast Concrete Floors which was sold to a large PLC in 2008. The friends teamed up when Andy wanted to set up his own precast concrete manufacturing operation in the North East.

Meanwhile, Paul, who runs CB Precast in Huddersfield, was looking for a dedicated manufacturing facility to ensure security of supply for precast flooring products.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .