FDBusiness.com

Staff at Riggs Autopack have started work in their impressive new factory in Nelson, Lancashire, following the company’s move across town. The company, which is part of the Fort Vale Group, has re-located from Southfield Street to Premier Mill, Brunswick Street.

Established in the 1930’s, they manufacture high quality depositors and filling machines for the food production industry. They supply food producers of varied type and size with clients ranging from start-up companies and cottage industries, through to multi-national groups and international factories. Over the years, Riggs Autopack’s equipment has improved the production processes for a large number of food manufacturers, and helped them meet growing demand for their goods.

The Lancashire firm take great pride in their machine range and excellent customer service. They are a Rolls Royce plc approved supplier, member of the PPMA, and a proud ISO 9001:2008 registered firm with BenchmarQ Gold customer satisfaction accreditation. In 2011 and 2012 they received two highly prestigious awards, that being Company Of The Year and Industry Excellence by Business and Industry Today.

Providing a friendly and professional service, they employ an experienced and highly skilled team of 28 staff encompassing sales, design, production, research and development, parts supply, service and maintenance.

The move gives Riggs Autopack, the room to further expand, win new orders, and potentially recruit more personnel in key areas. David Smith, Technical Director at Fort Vale, who has overseen the transference into the new premises, says: “Hopefully that’s the last move and we can grow with alacrity from now on. There is room to take on more projects at the same time and space to do much more fabrication, which means we can move forward far quicker. It will open up all sorts of opportunities.”

The new unit, which covers 50,000 square feet, has been specifically re-fitted throughout by The Fort Vale Group for Riggs Autopack’s use, with the installation of new offices, meeting and exhibition rooms, training area, shop floor production, product testing and machine demonstration.

A new Mori Seiki CNC lathe with “Y” axis has also been purchased and installed to help Riggs Autopack manufacture complex components, and extend their work with some of the biggest names in the food industry on a national and international level.

Riggs Autopack has become a UK market leader with an excellent reputation, and already a preferred supplier to Kerry Foods. They are hoping to secure further similar agreements by providing high quality food production equipment to accurately fill a huge variety of container types and size with liquid, semi-liquid and suspended solid products.

“Having more manufacturing space will allow us to further expand and bring some of the sub-contracting work back in-house that we’ve previously put out in the past,” explains Riggs Autopack General Manager Nigel Matthews. “By doing this, it will allow us to create jobs and employ more people from the local area. As part of the company’s continued growth strategy, we have plans in place to hire extra staff during 2013 including 2 machine shop apprentices, and are currently looking to add to our external sales team and in-house design department.”

“It’s good for employees to have somewhere as impressive as our new factory to work. We’ve experienced continued growth for a number of years now; we provide investment in the business and in-turn our staff’s future. Riggs Autopack is a people and team driven company, and it’s due to the right people being recruited in the right departments that we owe our success.”

“All these factors in conjunction with the move to our new factory, can only help us to keep growing further and maintain our market position.”

For further information contact Riggs Autopack on Tel +44 (0)1282 440040, Email info@autopack.co.uk or visit www.autopack.co.uk.