Sir Robert McAlpine hands over the keys to £100M state-of-the-art facility

The build of AkzoNobel’s £100M manufacturing facility in Ashington, Northumberland, has reached a significant milestone as Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd has officially handed over the keys to the site.

Sir Robert McAlpine, which undertook all the civil construction requirements for the site, has completed its role as principal contractor and has handed the remainder of the site build over to an AkzoNobel plant commissioning team and ABB Ltd, a leader in power and automation technologies, which will supervise the installation of all processes and equipment.

When complete, the plant will be one of the most sustainable manufacturing facilities anywhere in the world. It will be home to some of AkzoNobel’s internationally famous brands, including Dulux, Cuprinol, Hammerite and Polycell, confirming the company’s long-term commitment to the production of its decorative paint products in the UK.

AkzoNobel also recently announced plans to invest £1M in a new powder coatings pilot plant at its facility in Felling, Gateshead. The line will replicate the powder coatings manufacturing process on a small scale, enhancing development initiative capabilities and easing and speeding up the scale up process from laboratory to full scale production.