Clearview National April 2020 - Issue 221 | Page 22

DOORS&WINDOWS
LATEST PHASE OF FACTORY
AND PRODUCTION
INVESTMENT COMPLETE
» A NEW 20,000 FT 2 FACTORY
extension combined with further upgrades
in the company’s production facilities, have
been completed by Apeer Ltd, the Ballymena-
based manufacturer of Apeer composite
entrance doors and Lumi windows and doors.
The investment completes the latest phase
of the company’s five-year investment and
development plan begun in 2017.
Occupying a 7.2 acre site the company’s
head office and production facilities now total
140,000 ft2 with all services now fully self-
contained, including the production of door
blanks through to completed door sets for
Apeer residential doors; fabrication of all Lumi
windows, sliding and entrance doors; and all of
the company’s glass requirements.
Despite challenges imposed by Britain’s exit
from the EU and political upheaval nationally and
locally within Northern Ireland, sales of Apeer
products have continued to grow in line with
the company’s plans. The new facilities further
increase output capacity and provide greater
flexibility to suit market conditions and demand.
The factory extension has allowed re-planning
of production in more efficient flowlines with
all services under one roof, including advanced
glass processing that now allows for complex
shapes to be cut and the exceptional sheet
sizes increasingly required for Lumi doors and
windows, to be sourced in-house. A new CNC
precision waterjet cutting machine has been
installed to make the unusually complex cuts
required for Lumi windows and doors, whilst the
Northglass AG-series Forced Convection furnace
installed 18 months ago, allows toughened glass
production in sheet sizes up to 5m x 2.8m.
The second paint line installed for Apeer
composite doors is now supplemented by
a second insulating core press used for the
production of the company’s GRP-faced
22 » A PR 2020 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M
composite door panels, which combined will
allow more than 1000 two colour doors to be
manufactured each week, entirely in house.
Asa McGillian, the company’s managing
director, says that completion of the new
extension fulfils many of the company’s plans
for growth: “The additional space does far
more than simply allow new machines to be
installed. We have now been able to re-plan our
whole facility to create more logical production
flowlines and logical sequences, all of which will
give us significant increases in output as well
as flexibility, something that remains crucial
especially until Brexit is finally settled.
“Our glass processing facility is now highly
capable and flexible and allows us to cope
in-house with the increasingly large Lumi
doors being ordered, as well as the demands
for Apeer composite doors, for which we also
produce decorative glass units in our own
studio. In fact, I believe that Apeer doors have a
greater UK sourced content than the majority
of composite door brands sold in Britain
and Ireland. We are proud of that of course,
and also that our video-based quality control
system is now more intensive than ever and
showing an exceptionally low rejection rate.
Our right-first-time rate of 98% is excellent.”
Completion of the production investments
has further implications for the company, adds
Asa: “Our focus is now very much on marketing,
with some exceptional support programmes
being developed to provide high quality leads for
Apeer and Lumi retail partners. Our composite
doors - especially the Silka range - and new
Lumi replacement window which were launched
last year at the FIT Show, are enjoying excellent
sales growth and we will work hard to ensure
this continues.”
www.apeer.co.uk