My Local Electrician had the pleasure of visiting the head office of Vent-Axia in Crawley to celebrate the return of manufacturing to their Crawley factory.
As well as meeting key staff at Vent-Axia, we were also treated to a tour of their factory looking at the production line and warehouse. It was truly fascinating to see the different components of a Vent-Axia fan being assembled, tested and then packaged ready to be distributed to the trades person.
Vent-Axia have newly launched a smart phone code on their packaging (which is a simple cardboard box) which a trades person can scan with their phone which takes them directly to a dedicated technical help page on the Vent-Axia website. This saves time trying to locate the page via their main website.
At the Vent-Axia 'Made in Britain' event, opened by Ronnie George CEO of Vent-Axia said 'Vent-Axia are excited about direction – at last we're turning the tide.' This is the start of manufacturing returning to the UK, an industry which is synonymous in UK history.
Henry Smith MP for Crawley was most delighted to attend this highly press worthy event and said of Vent-Axia 'This is a significant event bringing manufacturing to the UK' Henry also spoke of Vent-Axia expanding operations clearly shows the range of systems and market league of Vent-Axia which is demonstrated by the plethora of awards most notably their Royal Warrant and the supply of extraction systems of the White House.
There is a family atmosphere at Vent-Axia, experienced members of staff work alongside junior members, and husband and wife teams are employed here, and have been for generations. Vent-Axia was founded in 1936 and last year (2012) saw their 75th anniversary.
The 'Made In Britian' launch event has seen a £350,000 investment into the production line in Crawley, most notably in tooling. The return to production in Crawley is a shining example of how Britain can recover from the very difficult times we've seen over recent years.
Vent-Axia is a household name and is the dominant brand in ventilation and has always been a market leader. Vent-Axia started out as mainly a public house supplier and still supplies original Vent-Axia fans to Royal Residences and various other listed buildings. Original Vent-Axia fans also feature in museums and also adorn Vent-Axias own reception area.
Today’s made in Britain launch event was the culmination of a four year project which sees the return of manufacturing to Crawley from China. Vent-Axia can now proudly state that all their domestic unitary fans are designed AND manufactured in the UK and now include new features as standard at no extra cost. These features include an educational message to help tenants in social housing (one of Vent-Axias 7 big markets) to understand how their fan works to ensure it runs at its optimum and at the same time ensure knowledge is passed between landlord and tenant.
The new production line at Crawley will double output ensuring supply of products and customer service are to the high standards that Vent-Axia expect. Moving manufacturing to Great Britain also underpins the carbon offering at Vent-Axia particularly making improvements to transport mileage eliminating an estimated 15 tonnes of CO2 whilst enabling Vent-Axia to innovate and create products that others can't. Vent-Axia attributes 40% of its sales to their Lo Carbon fan range which are being developed further to include entry level Carbon Box Fans for commercial use.
Vent-Axia are confident moving manufacturing to the UK is the right move in order to maintain the growing demand for flexibility in the UK. In addition, the launch is creating much needed job creation and local investment resulting in improved products and services.