Building for the future on the strength of its past – Emplas enters 40th year of trading

Emplas was founded by current Chairman, Kevin Johnson. Its’ initial focus on retail, trading as T&K, switching focus to specialism in trade fabrication in 1985. 

Now in its 40th year of trading, Johnson said despite growth and a rapidly changing market, the specialist trade fabricator remained to the values on which the business was founded.

He said: “We started out as an installer and we remain an installer at heart. We know what you need from your supplier to be successful in retail and we’re committed to delivering the right product and service offer to our customers. 

“I’m very proud of the growth that we have seen and that after 40 years ,we’re still trading and continuing to grow, but probably what I’m most proud of is that we remain a family owned business and absolutely true to those principles on which we were founded. 

“That was to work hard, exploit the opportunities that technical innovation delivered to us and to our customers, to work in partnership with them and to deliver the very best service to them that we could.”

This focus on product and service innovation, in addition to the insight it shares with its retail customer base gained through T&K Home Improvements, has been key to Emplas’ success.

It’s been underpinned by a programme of continuous development.  This has included a more than £3.5m spend on its new factory extension and machinery.   

Adding around a third again to its manufacturing facility and completed at the end of 2017, the new development houses new lines, loading bays and offices. 

A £1.4m spend on machinery last year also saw Emplas add a second Schirmer machining and cutting centre, multiple Rotox welders and saws, bringing its weekly capacity up to 2,500 frames.  

This investment in machinery, also accompanied by a corresponding investment in its IT infrastructure and systems, increasing visibility of its service offer to its trade customer from the initial point of order right up to delivery. 

Ryan Johnson, Managing Director, said Emplas would continue to pursue a sustainable growth strategy in 2018.

 “The investment we have made in the last year puts us in a very good place in that it’s allowed us to improve our product quality and service to our customers, while delivering additional capacity in production. 

“The key thing is that despite the benefits of scale, we continue to work closely with our customers. We understand the environment in which they’re operating and that means we can align our product and support offer, so as to continuously improve our service to them.”