Vent-Axia, a Sussex-based British fan manufacturer, is a leader in low-carbon ventilation. Vent-Axia backshored from China to the UK in January 2013, when the Crawley site saw the launch of three new production lines. The new assembly lines doubled the company’s on-site manufacturing of its residential unitary fans. The company invested over £350k in tooling for the new production lines, as well as investing in building works to incorporate the new manufacturing.
The new production lines create 35 new site jobs and represent an increase in the number of assembly staff employed on site by 50%.
Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I was very pleased to visit Vent-Axia to see what a positive effect reshoring has had on the company and meet the people who work there. Vent-Axia is a great example of a company that has brought manufacturing back to the UK, creating jobs for hard-working people. As part of our long-term economic plan, we will continue to do all we can to make Britain the best place to start, grow and do business.”
Ronnie George, CEO at Volution Holdings, the group that owns Vent-Axia, said: “We are delighted Mr Cameron was able to visit our headquarters at Crawley yesterday and view our production lines. Reshoring the balance of our residential fan production to the UK made sense due to a number of factors not just from a competitive position, but also customer service and responsiveness is substantially enhanced when manufacturing our products locally.
“Increasing our UK manufacturing capacity goes to underpin Volution’s ambitions to be a more substantial international player in the ventilation market, which is illustrated by our acquisition of two Swedish ventilation companies during the last 18 months. Moving Vent-Axia’s manufacturing back to the UK allows us to both supply products abroad to the wider Volution group and prepares us for further international expansion. I was therefore delighted that TowerBrook Capital Partners backed this initiative practically on the first day of new ownership.”
The new UK based production lines allow Vent-Axia to manage stock levels and has improved their service offering. The UK location also makes it easier for Vent-Axia to continuously monitor and adapt on-going design enhancements in line with customer needs, as the lead time for the introduction of such improvements will be reduced.
Vent-Axia employs 270 staff at its headquarters in Fleming Way, Crawley, West Sussex. The addition of 35 jobs at its Sussex site, including 20 new production staff and 6 service support staff, has been a welcome boost to the local Crawley job market.
