08 | Aycliffe Today Business
SPIN
CITY
Ebac managing director Pamela Petty tells Martin Walker about
the company’s exciting new plans to bring washing machine
manufacturing back to the UK, and back to Newton Aycliffe…
Enterprising would be an
understatement. Bold doesn’t
get a look in. Ambitious
would be a disservice. And
Courageous isn’t even close.
But put those four words together –
Enterprising, Bold, Ambitious, Courageous
– and the initials spell out the name of a
truly innovative Newton Aycliffe-based firm
which is aiming to bring washing machine
manufacturing back to the UK.
Doesn’t it seem absurd that every one of
the four million washing machines bought
every year in the UK are imported? Indeed,
not producing enough of our own is the
fundamental reason behind our economic
slump, according to Ebac founder John
Elliott.
That’s why a “fag-packet” idea, as current
MD Pamela Petty calls it, dreamt up a
number of years, now represents headlinegrabbing news for Newton Aycliffe.
Ebac, currently the UK’s only manufacturer
of dehumidifiers and water coolers, won
a £1m grant from the Regional Growth
Fund, at the second time of asking, to go
towards a £7m venture to create a new
machine manufacturing facility to produce
washing machines and fridge-freezers.
“It’s all about job creation, says Pamela,
”
one of the two daughters who now run
the firm, along with her sister, operations
director Amanda Hird.
Another £6m is required to get the project
up and running – no mean feat even by
Sir Richard Branson’s standards – but the
gutsy company which relocated to Aycliffe
Business Park in April 2010 expect to
double its workforce to 400 and increase
turnover from £19m to £38m over the next
five years.
“We’ve got a good, strong, healthy
business, but we’re in markets that are
now mature, so we won’t get any growth
from those markets. So if we want to
create more jobs, and be more successful,
then we’ve got to get into something new.
The Ebac Group was earlier this
year handed over to a Trust – a move
engineered by founder and chairman
John Elliott, star of the very first Secret
Millionaire TV show – which will ensure the
company remains in Aycliffe and continues
to manufacture, rather than import.
This latest development, a huge deal in
itself, is all part of the long-term plan to
create sustainability and longevity.
“It’s the only way that we can expand,
and we would