Bridon International is constructing a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at the Neptune Energy Park on the banks of the River Tyne in Tyneside, UK. This facility will have a central role in Bridon’s vision for the future, and will serve as a high-tech hub of global technology leadership in the manufacturing of steel and wire rope.
The Neptune facility will manufacture the largest and most complex multi strand ropes in the world, with pieceweights of up to 600 tonnes. It will continue the company’s work to fulfill ever-more demanding rope applications, including combinations of steel and synthetic fibre, and will act as a base for technological innovation in rope manufacturing across the globe.
The facility will ship to customers right across Bridon’s international client base, and its ropes will be used in some of the most challenging environments in the world. Bridon is rapidly expanding into a range of developing markets, producing pioneering ropes that can withstand the ravages of salt water and temperatures of minus forty degrees centigrade. The Neptune facility will strengthen and develop Bridon’s capacity to produce these market-leading products, and bolster Bridon’s position at the forefront of global technology leadership.
The facility will create up to fifty highly skilled new jobs, as well as further ancillary positions (these positions will be advertised on the Bridon website as they arise, as well as in local media).
Bridon is set to receive £2.2 million from the Regional Growth Fund to support the company’s work in bringing this state of the art facility to Tyneside. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg described Bridon as “a fantastic candidate for this RGF grant” and noted “the impressive existing skills-base and experience it has built on Tyneside”.
Bridon has a proud history of manufacturing in the North of England, and understands the breadth of manufacturing skills and experience in the region. Newcastle has been a base of rope making operations since the 1789 opening of the Willington Quay facility – a site which today employs 175 people and is located minutes down the road from the Neptune Energy Park. The Neptune facility will be Bridon’s third site in the North of England.
Bridon will be working closely with a range of local and regional partners in constructing this state-of-the-art site. Shepherd’s Offshore is the company’s chief development partner for the project, supported by Sunderland based Tolent Construction, and Pipe Coil Technology Limited who will be the facility’s principal suppliers of specialist handling equipment.
Johnathan Templeman, CEO of Bridon, goes onto say, “The ropes this factory will produce will be the largest and most complex in the world, and will be used in solving increasingly demanding challenges within the energy, mining and construction sectors.”
Bridon plans to take control of the Neptune facility in the Spring of 2012 with rope production starting at the end of the year.
