Partner Article

S&A gets investment for the round

A new architectural design for an agricultural building without walls is set to help a North East construction and materials supply firm develop a new strand to its business.

Barnard Castle-based Simpson & Allinson (S&A) Ltd have already sold more than 20 of their ‘Roundhouse’ buildings to agricultural customers from across the UK.

With interest levels growing in both domestic and overseas markets, the company has moved to upgrade its manufacturing and production processes to enable it to take advantage of new commercial opportunities.

To do this, S&A received a £150,000 business investment from NEL Fund Managers. S&A will use the NEL money to strengthen the production and marketing resources dedicated to the Roundhouse, and hopes to double the number of units sold over the next six months.

S&A managing director Geoff Simpson said: “The roundhouse concept dates back to the Bronze Age, but the application of modern technology and materials has enabled us to take it and create a building that both optimises animal welfare and significantly reduces operational and building costs.

“As well as pushing the Roundhouse concept across the UK, we’ve exhibited the system at trade shows in Germany and Denmark, gaining a very strong response from the people we met, and now have agents actively marketing the system in continental Europe and further afield.

“We’ve already secured a number of multiple and repeat orders, and are also being approached by new customers with a variety of different requirements who think that the Roundhouse provides what they’re looking for, so the omens for high levels of demand are already looking good, even before we put our development plans for 2009 fully in place.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .