The company, established in 1884, has just completed the move from its well-known South Chingford premises on the North Circular Road, which it had occupied since 1947, to a three-acre 65,000ft2 site in Braintree. New manufacturing technology has been installed.
Managing director Simon Shadbolt said the company had outgrown the old outdated site, where Shadbolt’s “Veneer of the Week” sign was a landmark on the busy North Circular Road.
Money raised from the sale of the South Chingford site to Kier Property Developments Ltd will help the business continue its programme of product and service improvement.
“We see there is still a market for us doing bespoke architectural veneered panelling and fire doors, said Mr Shadbolt. “Veneer is still a very strong thing to have on a door.”
He said wood finishes had been increasingly important in helping people to return to wood veneer.
Mr Shadbolt was interviewed by Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio London just before the move about the “Veneer of the Week” sign, which he said had cheered up motorists for the past 25 years.
The last “Veneer of the Week” to appear outside the South Chingford site was crown cut Canadian white elm.
Shadbolt, which trades as Shadbolt International, matches veneered doors and panels throughout customer contracts and stocks more than one million m2 of veneer comprising over 120 different species.
