Leading Black Country manufacturing firm Thomas Dudley has started work on a new multi-million-pound corporate head office. Based on the Birmingham New Road in Dudley, the company produces castings and top quality bathroom fittings.
Joint managing director Martin Dudley; Rob Lashford, regional manager Speller Metcalfe; joint managing director Jason Parker; Gareth McGill, project manager Speller Metcalfe and Simon Holdsworth, contracts manager Speller Metcalfe
Leading Black Country manufacturing firm Thomas Dudley has started work on a new multi-million-pound corporate head office.
Based on the Birmingham New Road in Dudley, the company produces castings and top quality bathroom fittings.
The company is still owned by the Dudley family who founded the business in 1920, and it now employs around 350 people.
The new building is being developed as the company has outgrown its current office block, built in the 1970s. The new development will provide state-of-the-art offices for staff alongside a customer-focused showroom and training facilities.
To mark the start of work, a sod-cutting event was held with Midlands-based construction firm Speller Metcalfe, which has been appointed as the main contractor for the scheme.
It is the latest in a string of investments in facilities, technology and people by the firm which says it has seen ‘exceptional growth’ in recent years
Martin Dudley, Thomas Dudley’s joint managing director, said: “This is another significant milestone in the development of Thomas Dudley. It further underlines out commitment to investing in the business, in order to deliver world-class products and services for our customers nationwide and overseas.”
Fellow joint managing director Jason Parker added: “The new building supports a number of our strategic business principles in that it will allow us to provide an enjoyable, customer-focussed environment that promotes family values and we look forward to moving in the next year.”
Speller Metcalfe has also enjoyed a strong period of growth in recent years, particularly at its regional office in Wolverhampton which it opened just two years ago. This has included a string of major projects for Wolverhampton City Council.
2015’s winner of the UK’s Contractor of the Year award, the Speller Metcalfe team aim to deliver the new three-storey building by August next year.
Regional manager Rob Lashford said: “Bringing two local, family-owned and run businesses together to develop this new project is a fantastic announcement for the region.
“Not only will this new building provide employment opportunities for Thomas Dudley, the development itself will bring other employment for local sub-contractors and suppliers from across the county.”
Thomas Dudley is one of the finalists in the innovation and technology category in the Black Country Chamber of Commerce Awards. The winners will be announced at Wolverhampton Racecourse on November 8.
The company was the chamber’s overall business of the year in 2013.
The foundry division of Thomas Dudley has recently invested more than £250,000 in enhancing its warehousing and logistical capabilities.
It has also completed a major modernisation of the finishing facility at its Duport Foundry.
The growing business which had already equipped its foundries, with state-of-the-art manufacturing technology.
Work began earlier in the year on a new jobs-boosting manufacturing skills centre at the group’s Dudley Port site
The Elite Centre for Manufacturing Skills unit will teach foundry and pattern-making skills and students will have access to the industrial facilities at the Thomas Dudley foundry on the same site.
Source: expressandstar.com
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