Weston Group launches £12m 'housebuilding factory’ capable of building 5000 homes a year

The logistics arm of volume housebuilder Weston Group has announced the launch of a £12m build-off-site complex capable of creating 5,000 new homes a year.

Weston Logistics’ Braintree Logistics Centre is a 75,000 sq ft housebuilding factory – a new breed of hybrid plant introducing an automotive-industry-style logistics, assembly and quality-control system to the home construction sector.

Occupying a 3.5-acre site, the facility includes a 10m-high warehouse and manufacturing complex jointly designed by PRC Architects, supply chain consultants Gideon Hillman, precision engineering firm Globe Tooling Ltd and Weston Group.

The factory currently houses 40 staff. Once fully operational, it will provide more 60 new jobs.

Its at the centre are barcoded and stored until needed, when they are retrieved, assembled into products, quality-control tested, packaged as per the homebuyer’s individual specifications and shipped to Weston’s residential developments.

Weston Group chief exec Bob Weston said: “The new Braintree Logistics Centre is a highly advanced distribution and build-off-site centre and represents the future of the volume housebuilding industry.

“Within the next 10 years technology will allow for new homes to be fully manufactured off-site by robots and computer-assisted engineering tools; customer specification choices fully automated; with factory-made components then built on-site using machines like a highly advanced lego-system.”

He added: “This step change will help enhance site safety, quality control and automotive-like precision. Our blue-chip factory at Braintree is another pioneering part of the process.”

Weston Logistics MD Shaun Weston commented: “This new Braintree Logistics Centre transforms Weston Group’s logistics and off-site manufacturing capacity and enhances our ability to control our supply chain, improve the delivery of customer specification choices and ensure the quality of the products that form the specification of the homes we sell.

“Weston Group has a £2bn development pipeline of 6,000 new homes and this new complex helps us manage this expansion. Streamlined processing and inventory also allows for significant cost efficiencies and reducing the processing time for customer orders.”