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Godfrey Syrett invests £200k in product innovation

Newcastle-based furniture manufacturer Godfrey Syrett has invested over £200k in technology to support innovation in its product line.

Investing in a Lectra fabric cutting solution along with specialist pattern and marker making software, the firm says it will become more responsive in order to quickly fulfil new orders and continually innovate within its product range.

This follows the firm’s £400k investment in new board cutting technology last year, which led to £3m of new contracts.

The new equipment will optimise and automate the production of a number of the company’s key products, cutting in 2.5 minutes what would have taken 40 minutes using a manual process.

Godfrey Syrett’s operations director, Michael Donachie, says it will also deliver consistent quality of cut parts that is impossible to achieve with hand cutting, he explained: “Previously, our products were designed, developed and manufactured by hand. Whilst we are very proud of this heritage, this approach did have the potential for costly production errors.”

“After pinpointing our needs, Lectra demonstrated the impact automation would have on production speed and cost. The results were fantastic, fabric savings were significant versus manual cutting, at around 33%.

Neil Tweddle, managing director at Godfrey Syrett added; “In a market driven by the need for flexibility, style, innovation as well as function, we knew that we had to transform as a business to achieve our growth ambitions and secure new business.

“Technology is playing a major part in this transformation and I am excited to see how the business will continue to grow as a result of this latest investment.”

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