Aberdeen-based Stewart Milne Group Ltd has set a target of capturing a 20% share of the UK timber frame market over the next two years.
This is based on doubling its production in Scotland and England to achieve an annual turnover of £60m.
Hugh Mackay, executive chairman of Stewart Milne Timber Systems (SMTS), told a staff conference that the timber frame division was ‘bucking the trend that has seen the manufacturing sector go into recession in the UK’.
Output of kits from the Westhill factory near Aberdeen had risen 14% to 3,530 units in 2000/01, while SMTS profits had jumped 28% to £1.6m on the back of a 14% turnover increase to £34.6m.
The Westhill factory is the focus of a five-year production upgrade programme which has begun with the development of a 30,000ft2 covered storage area.
Meanwhile, the opening of a £10m timber frame manufacturing facility at Witney, near Oxford, will signal SMTS’ first production venture in England. The development will create 300 jobs while some staff are expected to transfer from Westhill.
Mr Mackay told TTJ that equipment was being installed at the Witney factory and that trial runs would take place in December.
