To kick start the expansion, Tobermore Paving Products will invest £4m in new jobs across the UK and Ireland, including the creation of a dedicated technical design team to support its commercial customers.
This will be followed by the construction of a new £8m production facility at its manufacturing site in Tobermore, Northern Ireland.
“We know the industry is preparing for considerable growth in the construction of new homes and infrastructure, and this investment shows that Tobermore is ready to support our customers across the supply chain as they design, build, and supply the materials for their projects,” said head of sales Kathryn Robinson. “These plans will ensure that we have the right people, facilities, and equipment in place to produce the products they need at scale, so we can meet both the immediate need and an anticipated upsurge in customer demand.”
To address immediate capacity requirements driven by an increase in customer demand, Tobermore has also introduced additional night shifts in its manufacturing facilities.
Over the next few months, the company will recruit 34 people to increase the technical and specification support available for customers. This includes a technical support service to help with permeable paving, retaining walls and landscape visualisations. They will also be recruiting 10 new roles within its commercial/business-to-business team, including two national house-builder managers, as well as 11 new specification managers to support its continually growing customer base in mainland Britain.
“By extending our design, technical, specification, and account teams, we will be able to provide groundworkers with the dedicated support they need for every stage of the build process,” added Kathryn. “We can provide everything from a complete design and visualisation service to the technical information needed to deliver everything from permeable paving to structural walls on site.”
In addition, Tobermore will make a £8m investment in the construction of a new 3,000 sqm factory. This will have capacity to produce more than a million square metres of paving blocks a year, increasing the company’s block paving production by 25%.
“Our customers are facing an incredible challenge to build more homes and commercial projects, including public realm and healthcare, and to do this quickly to very high standards,” Robinson said. “This investment demonstrates our commitment to supporting our customers. Increasing our production capacity means we will be able to not just meet but exceed anticipated demand, so they can keep on building.”
This is the latest investment in a series of expansion projects by Tobermore. The company opened a £10m production facility in 2020, expanding block paving production capacity, and a £8.6m manufacturing unit in 2022 to increase production of paving slabs. These two investments have enabled the company to scale up overall block paving production by approximately 25% and slab production by approximately 40% since 2019.
