Customised tooling and tool servicing company Unimerco has given the UK furniture and woodworking industries a vote of confidence by building a new £4m headquarters at Fradley, Staffordshire.
The company will move to the larger premises at the end of August – just five years since it set up its first UK operation on a Lichfield industrial estate.
The headquarters, modelled on a ‘roofed village’ concept succesfully pioneered at Unimerco’s worldwide headquarters in Denmark, are a radical departure from most UK industrial plants.
Production and office-based activities are merged in an open plan layout where extensive acoustic control systems reduce noise levels well within the accepted minimum.
In Denmark Unimerco was selected as having the best workplace in the country and this year it was voted one of the top 10 European workplaces.
The new UK headquarters will follow a similar pattern with a first-class restaurant, conference rooms and guest rooms providing overnight accommodation.
The company has also extended its range of both sharpening and similar production machinery, in addition to new PVD coating equipment, an ion implantation system and specialist plant for servicing PCD (polycrystalline diamond) tooling.
Unimerco UK managing director Carsten Mortensen said: “Our new premises, with more people, more tooling specialists, and more plant, is indicative not only of our confidence in the UK furniture and woodworking industries but our ability to handle an increasing volume of demand from a growing range of customers.”
