SATRA, the research and testing organisation, is to spend £1.5m to extend existing facilities at its second site at Wyndham Way, Kettering.
Work on the 26,000ft2 extension at the research and technology centre for consumer product industries is due to start this month. The facility currently houses product testing laboratories, a test equipment-building workshop and design and print complex. Its work includes furniture and wood products research.
SATRA chief executive Dr Ron Whittaker said: “This is the largest single investment in new facilities made by the technology centre in its 84 years of existence.
“In time the new building will become SATRA’s new headquarters, but the board has no immediate plans to dispose of our three acre site at Rockingham Road in Kettering.”
SATRA is a membership organisation and the development will be fully funded from its own resources.
Dr Whittaker said the new laboratories and specialist test areas will allow SATRA to substantially expand its furniture, automotive and safety product testing areas. At the same time it will provide an opportunity to create a state-of-the-art chemical instrumental analysis laboratory to identify hazardous substances in consumer products.
Staffing levels, currently 185, are expected to rise as the centre develops in the next few years, particularly as SATRA has applied to become a Notified Body for the EU Construction Products Directive which is increasingly being incorporated into UK legislation.
