Robotic mowing tech specialist celebrates “new era of opportunity” in County Durham

Robotic mowing and smart-mowing technology specialist Husqvarna today celebrates a new era of opportunity in the North East thanks to its new CEORA product line at its Newton Aycliffe manufacturing site and increased investment in its processes.

To support its new processes, Husqvarna is making further investments in the region through the development of its team. It now spends over £100k a year on training and development of its people, nurturing talent in the North East across several technical disciplines with a plan to recruit an additional five technical apprentices this year.

Set to “revolutionise” commercial turf care management in the UK, the new Husqvarna CEORA is manufactured solely in Newton Aycliffe, the only factory in the Husqvarna Group producing the product at this time.

A residential Husqvarna robotic lawn mowing product, used in domestic gardens, contains approximately 300 components, while CEORA contains almost four times that number. This is a complex assembly process, which has been developed by Husqvarna’s in-house systems in County Durham to be able to guarantee the build quality they require.

Husqvarna is also rolling out the production of lithium-ion battery packs at its factory, for use across its complete robotic lawnmower range.

The company has invested over £1m into semi-automatic production processes to create an in-house battery manufacturing facility providing a battery pack dual sourcing opportunity for risk mitigation purposes, encompassing everything from automatic welding, soldering, laser marking, and testing.

Caraline Robinson, manufacturing director at Husqvarna UK commented: “With initial product sales for CEORA already underway, the prospects for Husqvarna and our Newton Aycliffe manufacturing site are bright.

“We have a number of new product innovations in the pipeline for the future and lots of opportunities to expand, so this is a really exciting time for the business. We plan to retain a strong focus on robotics, and we’ll continue to innovate across our range from both a design and manufacturing perspective.

“We also have plans to introduce new systems and processes, including a manufacturing execution system. The technology itself is not brand new, but it’s something that we’ll be embracing to help gather real-time data about our processes and to drive efficiency improvements more effectively within our factory.

“We are proud to be a business operating within the County Durham community and in the North East, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds as we continue to grow within the region.”