Brave New World for Business Relocation to East Yorkshire

The new facility, which is a combination of administrative offices for both companies and a manufacturing unit and warehouse for SPT, has 10,000 square metres under cover. It is a major step for the businesses, who are now well established in their respective markets, with a joint turnover of £12m.

Group CEO, Craig Carmichael is pleased with the move and the progress being made. “Kepi has been trading for almost nine years now, we have a lot of experience, providing construction and infrastructure services in the UK and around the world. We offer turnkey solutions to developers and contractors globally, these can be small local projects or major schemes and we can act as the main contractor or as a sub-contractor. We do a lot of work with the military, especially in the Middle East and Africa and have a track record of delivering at the forefront of combat areas, post-conflict countries and regions of political unrest. Kepi’s services include Survey and Design, Infrastructure Development, Commercial Building, Civil Engineering, Facilities Management and Construction Services Procurement”

“SPT are a manufacturer and supplier of Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS). These panels are used in modular building and they are the perfect solution for rapidly constructing thermally efficient, airtight buildings. Our panels can be used for external and internal walls, roofs and intermediate floors, in virtually any design and application. They are a real revolution in the housebuilding and commercial construction sector. We decided in 2016 to set up manufacturing in Romania and this has operated well, but we recently took the decision to invest in the UK and so have set up a brand new plant and relocated the whole business to East Yorkshire”

Craig continued “It's a brave decision based on what’s happening at the moment in the UK and the fact that most of our SIPS business comes from Europe. But we are confident that the move back here will work. We will be recruiting locally for our factory and, as lot of our customers are based in the Benelux countries, we are well placed with the various ferry services in the Humber for access to these countries”

Relocating the SPT factory from Romania to East Yorkshire is now complete and the new production unit commenced manufacturing early in the New Year. The company’s SIPS panels have some very unique features and are some of the best available on the market. Moving back to the UK will allow SPT to expand production, increase their UK sales and continue supplying new and existing customers in mainland Europe.  

This form of construction is starting to take off in the UK and is getting a lot of attention from central government, who see it as a solution to the nations housing crisis. SPT’s integrated modular building system dramatically reduces construction time and labour costs. They measure the building of homes for example in days rather than weeks or months. The panels are simple to erect, don’t require as many tradespeople and external and internal finishing can start earlier. This should result in more affordable new homes being available, to first time buyers, families and downsizers in this country and overseas.

Craig summarised by saying “Both Kepi and SPT are well known in their respective markets and we now want to ensure they become further established in East Yorkshire and in particular in Driffield and the Wolds. It's a great place to live and work and we are looking forward to contributing to the prosperity of the local and national economy. We believe there is a strong future for UK based businesses working around the globe and, as an international player, we are doing our bit to re-establish our countries reputation in world markets”