Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has described AESSEAL’s Factory for the Future as “a temple of innovation”.
Opening the development, Mr Sunak said the country could learn from the success of AESSEAL.
He told more than 200 guests at the Mill Close headquarters ceremony that it was not just about founder and managing director Chris Rea building a “world leading company”, but how he had gone about it.
The Conservative MP for Richmond and Northallerton said: “He has done it in a way that is consistent with how he is. He is a deeply principled man who is committed to making the world a better place than he found it.
All of you have been part of this extraordinary story of what makes this company special.
AESSEAL was formed with just five employees in 1979, and now serves more than 100 countries with almost 2,000 staff. Mr Sunak said its growth was a success story the country could learn from, and added;
It is successful because the company defines reliability. You can trust AESSEAL – signed, sealed and delivered. This is a temple of innovation.
Mr Rea said the building was called the Factory for the Future, not the Factory of the Future, because it represented something that was always evolving and not static.
He pointed to the unoccupied space in the factory and said:
What upsets me most in the world? Pretty close is not having enough customers, but what really upsets me more is not being able to give great service to the customers we have. We built this so our customers could fill it. We have facilities we could close down and fill tomorrow but that is not our style. We make tasks redundant but we never make people redundant. If you have space and you have great people and great customers, you will fill it.
Representatives from the worlds of manufacturing, engineering, politics and national media – as well as AESSEAL staff from across the globe, including the US, Spain, Colombia, Canada, Germany, Brazil and the Middle East – were given guided tours of the factory, showcasing innovations and sustainability, and Tree Walk tours on which green initiatives were highlighted.
Designed in collaboration with Race Cottam Associates, the building doubles the size of the previous plant to create a 175,000 sq ft state of the art global showcase for sustainable manufacturing.
It includes £5.8 million of green only investment on solar panels, battery storage and other energy-saving or environmental measures.
Construction commenced in 2022, with sustainability the driving force behind the project, which was voted Sustainable Development of the Year at the South Yorkshire Property Awards 2024.
