/ COMPANY FOCUS: KATELL
KATELL POWER AHEAD THROUGH DIVERSITY OF MANUFACTURE
Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 17
/ COMPANY FOCUS: KATELL
KATELL POWER AHEAD THROUGH DIVERSITY OF MANUFACTURE
Katell is yet another fine example of one of Newton Aycliffe’ s“ hidden treasures”.
Many will have seen the name. For those who drive down Durham Way North every day, you can’ t miss the firm’ s 46,000 square foot facility.
But few will be aware of the diversity that is going on at Katell these days which has enabled it to grow into a £ 6m-a-year operation that employs 76 people.
Katell’ s core business is fireplaces and surrounds, manufacturing around 500 every week and supplying to the likes of ASDA, Homebase, Tesco and many national house builders as well as social housing providers and local authorities up and down the UK.
But other areas have come in to play in a big way recently, and about 30 % of Katell’ s business now comes from other lines including wardrobes, occasional furniture, bespoke bedroom furniture and even summer houses.
So much so, in fact, that a neighbouring firm on the park, Chelsea Summer Houses, has managed to accommodate an increased order book thanks to manufacturing support from Katell. Another local shop fitting company were able to accept a very large order to supply shop furniture for a national chain of book shops, based on the knowledge that Katell were able to supply them with high quality products on a very short lead time, over 2500 tables were supplied in a little under 2 months.
Martin, Katell’ s Design Director, who has been with the company since it started in 2000, helped to develops the firm’ s product ranges since the move to new premises on Durham Way North after fire struck its old factory on Park 2000 in 2006.
He said:“ Like a lot of businesses, we’ re evolving all the time and we’ re always looking at ways to develop our lines.
“ Fireplaces and surrounds have been our mainstay from day one and we continue to mass produce them for councils as far South as Cornwall, South Wales and Yorkshire and up to Scotland, as well as for big name national retailers.
“ But other lines of business are becoming more prevalent and, with the vast number of manufacturing companies on Aycliffe Business Park, I don’ t think a lot them will be fully aware of what we can do.
“ Our in-house design team has over 20 years experience in the furniture and joinery industry. Our designers can create fully working prototypes from basic sketches or fully detailed piece part drawings using the latest 3D modelling software.
“ So, basically, anything that needs making out of wood, we can do it!”
Katell is owned by Telford-based Charlton and Jenrick( with a group turnover of about £ 13m), and its operation in Aycliffe really is cuttingedge.
Martin added:“ We can supply realistic renderings so that you can look at a model before we commit to prototyping, and using software such as Alphacam and Solid Works final designs can be transferred straight to our CNC routers, not only saving time and money but ensuring 100 % accuracy of the finished product.
“ We have an extensive range of timber processing machines along with highlytrained operatives, meaning we can produce accurate components machined to a very high standard.
“ Also, all components produced at Katell are hand-finished to ensure the best possible products is supplied to our customer.”
Katells’ 46,000 sq ft manufacturing facility is geared up to produce anything from a one-off bespoke piece of furniture to high-volume batches of components.
You can call Katell on 01325 379060
For more details about its work, go to www. katellcommercial. co. uk
Or to learn more about fireplaces, go to www. katell. co. uk