MTC Insulation Solutions, Cold Rooms, Freezers, Chill Stores, Temperature Controlled Environments, Clean Rooms

Wasdell Packaging boosts capacity with new £1.5m site

Philip Chadwick, packagingnews.co.uk, 04 August 2010

MTC Insulation Solutions (MTC) believes confidence is once again returning to the sector after a successful few days at the PPMA show in Birmingham.
The exhibition is the UK showcase for processing & packaging machinery and attracts a host of companies from the cosmetics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and food & drink sectors.
The food construction specialist spoke to an array of companies and most agreed the market was picking up.  And the PPMA echoes MTC’s views stating “the green shoots of recovery were very much in evidence at this year’s PPMA Show.”
MTC’s Commercial Director, Geoff Daren says that although there were fewer stands this year, key decision-makers spent longer speaking to exhibitors.
He adds “the exhibition was a positive indication that companies are once again looking at investing in food factory design. 
We received a number of promising enquiries for design and build projects from national brands including a flooring and drainage project, a bakery and a dairy.  We have also been added to several tender lists which is encouraging.”
The company is also making its mark on the cosmetics industry after receiving an enquiry for a production line installation.
To discuss your design and build project further, please contact Geoff Daren on 0121 506 8991.

Cheese Business Doubles Production Capacity

Extons Foods, a supplier of prepared cheese products, has doubled its production capacity thanks to a new chill store which the company hopes will help to grow the business. Entrepreneur Liz Exton took over a loss-making business which supplied grated cheese and sandwich fillings to local sandwich shops, before turning around its fortunes to become one of Britain's largest dairy-produce purchasers. The company has grown by an impressive 50% in the last two years and is today run by Liz and her sister, Rachel, to provide sliced, grated, block and continental cheeses to the sandwich industry. At a time when many companies are nervous of expanding, Extons Foods has rented an additional unit for cold storage in order to cope with increasing demand. MTC Insulation Solutions, based in Solihull, was appointed to design and build a cold room which was completed within three weeks with no downtime in production.  A small office and meeting room was also built at the front of the cold store. The cold store has doubled the company’s capacity and Liz believes the extra space has maximised the company’s growth potential, adding: “We’ve just completed a stock take and the extra space has made an unbelievable difference to our operation as it means we can now plan and manage our stock better. We would have come to a complete standstill before but we now hope the business will continue to grow.”

MTC Insulation Solutions, a market leader in the design, build and construction of food safe environments, is offering Pro2Pac visitors the chance to win a luxury Virgin balloon flight by visiting stand B49.
Delegates to the show during the 15^th to 18^th March have the opportunity to win the once in a lifetime opportunity by simply leaving their business card with MTC Insulation Solutions.
The prize includes:
·                     A three to four hour ballooning experience for two people, with approximately an hour in the air in a famous red Virgin balloon
·                     Invitation to assist with the inflation and deflation of the balloon
·                     A champagne toast
·                     Personlised certificate signed by Sir Richard Branson and pilot.
The exhibition co-incides with MTC Insulation Solutions celebrating 17 years in business.  Established in February 1992, the Solihull based company offers a complete solution for designing and building food factories. 
Managing Director Mark Parnaby says the business has seen a remarkable transition over this time; “Despite tough economic conditions across the sector, I believe we’ve been able to grow the business by offering an enhanced consultancy approach.”
We focus heavily on customer service, technical support and maintenance and consequently have been involved in some exciting projects including Laverstoke Park, one of the fastest growing organic companies in the UK and
The Bread Factory which supplies top restaurants and five star hotels.”
To find out more about MTC Insulation Solutions, please visit
www.mtcltd.co.uk.  Competition terms and conditions apply. 
ENDS

 
MTC Insulation Solutions has recently designed and built a 15,000 square foot production area for The Bread Factory in London – a leading supplier of handmade speciality bread and cakes to top restaurants and 5 star hotels.
The wholesale bakery, which has been baking breads and morning goods for over 17 years, required a larger production area due to doubling their sales in the last two years.
£780,000 was invested into the new unit, which took 12 months of planning and five months to construct.  Unique aspects of the build involved MTC Insulation Solutions
building a mezzanine to utilise space above a production area to create another floor.  
The new factory has doubled The Bread Factory’s capacity and14 additional people have been recruited.  Handmade morning goods are prepared from the ground floor kitchen and high-end cakes are baked from the first floor.  A goods lift fitted by MTC Insulation Solutions serves both floors.
The new factory located at West Hendon is just 500 yards away from an existing site owned by The Bread Factory - also built by MTC Insulation Solutions.
Mark Parnaby, Managing Director of MTC Insulation Solutions said; “We are pleased to have worked with The Bread Factory again to deliver this state of the art baking facility which utilises space for our client and is a stones throw away from their existing premises. 
We worked closely with the planners to successfully obtain planning permission for a change of use and 24 hour working without which the bakery could not have progressed.”
Ran Avidan, Managing Director of The Bread Factory said; “Originally I thought it was better to move my entire factory space into one unit, but a feasibility survey carried out by MTC showed it was more cost-effective to have the factory spread over two locations. 
The mezzanine utilises space which would otherwise be lost and I’m extremely pleased with the end result.”
ENDS

MTC Insulation Solutions has pledged that training will remain an integral part of its business in 2009 in order to remain competitive during tough economic times.

The news follows the Government’s announcement that companies that don't train are two and a half times more likely to fail than those who do.*

MTC, based in Solihull, designs and builds food factories for clients including 1979 Formula 1 World Champion Jody Scheckter who owns Laverstoke Park - an award winning organic farm in Hampshire.
The small to medium enterprise took up 30 training courses in 2008, including those run by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health - Europe’s largest professional health and safety body.

16 of its sub-contractors have also been put through their paces with in-house training courses to ensure high standards are upheld.

Mark Parnaby, Managing Director of MTC said; “We believe that training both our workforce and our sub-contractors enables us to provide a high quality service to our client base and provides greater confidence about our services.  As well as continuing our training programme in 2009, we’ve also set our sights on becoming accredited from the Chartered Institute of Building which will highlight our professionalism further.”

Mark Farrar, Chief Executive of ConstructionSkills, who provided a grant for some of the training said: “We advise firms to continue training their employees as this will ensure they have a safe,
professional and qualified workforce, putting them in a
stronger, more competitive position to win and retain contracts.  Businesses should
seek to improve the quality of their workforce to mark themselves out to potential clients.”

MTC was initially appointed to work with the client’s architect to advise on the internal fit out of a link building.  However, due to food hygiene and engineering guidelines, MTC completely re-designed the building and were subsequently appointed as the Principle Contractor.

The new building completely envelopes one of the existing structures and when complete will form the backbone of the site, providing Laverstoke Park with additional production and processing space, staff amenities and offices with room for further expansion.

A strategic site integration plan was agreed and a planning application submitted within just four weeks of meeting the client.  Planning permission was granted with ease - despite the client’s fears over approval due to the sheer scale of the factory.

To meet today’s energy efficiency demand, high efficiency refrigeration machinery and building material including insulated wall panels were chosen.

Mark Parnaby, Managing Director of MTC said; “We are delighted to have worked on this project which proves that complex planning issues can be overcome to meet a clients’ brief.  Plans for an additional £1.4m expansion of the dairy production unit were also agreed which will complete in November.”

The PPMA Show, held in September, is the sector’s sole processing and packaging machinery-only show and attracts blue chip companies including Unilever and Tesco.

The exhibition enabled MTC to raise awareness of their expertise in food factory expansion including speaking to one of the UK's leading suppliers of rice to the grocery trade.

In addition to exhibiting at the show, MTC unveiled its new website which was
re-designed to reflect the company’s strong customer service ethos.  The site will be regularly updated with news and industry articles to provide companies with up to date, topical information.

Mark Parnaby, Managing Director of MTC said: “We recognise that marketing lies at the heart of our business strategy.  The PPMA show provided an opportunity for us to showcase our work and the new website provides a ‘shop window’ into our company so stakeholders including potential new customers and the media can learn more about our services.”