Mabey Bridge to expand Chepstow facility to manufacture wind turbine towers

(07/04/2010)

Mabey Bridge has now been given the green light by Monmouthshire Council to expand a new facility in Chepstow which will see it become the biggest UK manufacturer of wind turbine towers, both for onshore and offshore applications.

Mabey Bridge purchased the site at Newhouse Farm Distribution Park in Chepstow, which comprises South Wales’ largest speculative industrial unit along with 18 acres of land, for £13 million in January 2010.

The firm will now invest a further £25m increasing the size of the warehouse to enable it to fabricate wind turbine towers on the site, creating 240 new skilled jobs in the region. Once complete the company will fabricate around 300 wind turbine towers per annum at Newhouse Farm Distribution Park.

Peter Lloyd, managing director of Mabey Bridge, said: “Now we have planning approval we are able to start construction on the necessary extension to the existing building that will be required to apply protective coatings to these wind turbine towers. The new factory will be a state-of-the-art facility for tower manufacturing, allowing us to compete with any other tower manufacturers worldwide.”

The tower manufacturing business is in addition to the existing 400 jobs at the Mabey Bridge facilities in Chepstow and Lydney.

The factory will use the latest manufacturing techniques including computer-controlled cutting and rolling, robotic welding, steel blasting up to the highest quality and an automated painting facility.

The new site is ideally located for easy transportation across the UK. The factory has direct access to the M48, M4 and is five miles from the M5 along with good access to nearby ports at Newport Dock, Avonmouth, Bristol Dock and Cardiff Dock.

Related categories:  Wind power