Consumables

Meech announces expansion of international headquarters to cope with growing demand

Tuesday 01. October 2013 - Meech International today announces it has expanded and reorganised its premises in Witney, Oxfordshire, UK following a steady and consistent increase in sales over the past few years. The company has leased an additional building located very close to its head office. This 4000 sq. feet property will be employed primarily as the main production facility for the Meech Web Cleaners, IonRinse and JetStream product ranges. Additionally space in the new building will be allocated to general research and development of all Meech products, including the Static Control, and MAT ranges.

Expanding the web
“Production demand played a big part in our plans to expand,” says CEO, Chris Francis when explaining the reasons behind the significant investment made in the refurbishment, “but primarily it was the growth of the business over the years that has made this possible. As soon as we viewed the premises we realised it would provide an ideal space for the production of our web-cleaners.”
The decision to relocate the web-cleaning production unit to the new facility is a result of the range’s strong sales performance and the continuing demand for web-cleaners from all areas of the world. “While we are pleased with the results yielded by all of our products, the TakClean and the CyClean have performed exceptionally well because they are suitable for so many different markets and applications, such as labelling, converting, packaging, plastics, etc,” says Chris. “Being in the unique position of offering four different technologies in our web-cleaning system range has been key in helping us grow this side of our business both domestically and abroad.”
The new facility, which is comprised primarily of a production floor, administration office and a mezzanine dedicated to R&D, will prove instrumental in helping Meech achieve its goals to improve further its already solid global service and support.
Chris confirms that new equipment has already been installed in the building and there are plans to gradually strengthen the workforce as well. “We brought another web cleaning specialist on board at the beginning of the summer,” he reveals, “and we’re also looking to recruit a production assistant for the web-cleaning department.”
In-house make over
By moving the entire web-cleaning production to the new building, Meech has been able to reorganise and rearrange its current warehouse, which has enabled the creation of a larger, more productive environment for both static and air technology.
“The space for MAT has effectively doubled, while static control has grown by around 35%, in addition we have removed bottle-necks in our production process, for example we have increased and reorganised the packing area, which means orders can flow through in a much more streamlined process,” continues Chris. “Static has always been, and always will be, a key focus for our business, while we are constantly working on the development of new solutions in air technology (MAT). In fact, we’ve recently hired a new assembler to work in the MAT production area. We firmly believe that our internal workflow will greatly benefit from the reorganisation, giving us a slicker, smoother process from goods in to goods out, which will result in even higher output and shorter lead times.”
Chris goes on to explain how the changes will also have a positive impact on training: “Because we’ve extended our static control department on the ground floor of our original premises, we have relocated and built a much larger dedicated training and test room on the mezzanine, where we can host in-depth training courses for our distributors and customers. The new test room allows us to both conduct checks on our equipment and showcase Meech’s products to our visitors.”
An ever-growing global network
In the past few decades Meech has developed a strong presence in the static and web-cleaning markets on an international scale, and to reflect this has offices in Central and Eastern Europe, China, India and the USA to service these regions directly. Meech HQ services an even greater number of countries across the globe, such as Israel, Australia, Brazil, Japan and South Korea. All of this export resulted in the company being twice presented with a Queens Award for Enterprise: International Sales.
“We’re a geographically well-represented company and there’s been a noticeable growth in sales in all of the regions we deal with,” expands Chris. “Taking this into account, we need to capitalise on this demand and when the opportunity to take over the additional building so close to our HQ came up, it simply could not be missed.”
He concludes: “We are now more than ever in a strong position to take the company forward and provide our customers and prospects with the very best levels of service and support they have come to expect from the Meech brand.”