Thompsons is in the process of embarking from its 40,000sq.ft Scottish production base at the ex-navy Royal Elizabeth Yard near Kirkliston, on a voyage across the Firth of Forth to create a brand new 203,000sq.ft manufacturing complex at Dunfermline, sited next to the busy M90 motorway and on land neighbouring the gigantic Amazon depot which is a tad bigger at 1.5 million sq.ft. Alistair Vallance reports.
WHEN tipper body specialist Thompsons decided to branch northwards from Blackburn in 2017 and purchase the assets of Weightlifter’s Scottish operation at Kirkliston, joint managing director Simon Shields recalls having serious concerns as to filling the full production capacity of the staff and factory. Six years on however, the worries centre more on the order book fast exceeding production capability.
So a serious expansion plan is now in progress forming a common group theme in fact, since Thompsons’ huge Blackburn operation is enlarging from five production units to six, housing the burgeoning eParts facility and production of a new line in 200 hotboxes per year to meet demand from local authorities for an efficient pothole-filling solution.
The Thompsons Group also has tipper production plants in the south of England, sited in Croydon and Dover and trading under the Charlton brand, creating, as Simon Shields suggested, ‘a growing body building group covering the spine of Britain’.
