Why we moved.
We had outgrown Shebbear. The old yard had served us well since the 1970s — three generations of concrete had gone out of those gates — but the moulds were getting bigger, the jobs were getting heavier, and the access roads were not keeping up. In 2023 we completed the move to a new site at Chilsworthy, just outside Holsworthy on the Devon / Cornwall border.
The decision was years in the making. By 2020 we were turning down bespoke jobs we should have been quoting for, simply because we could not lay the moulds out. The new prestressed range needed a 60-metre casting bed; the old yard could give us 38 on a good day. HGV access was tight enough that loading a 14m panel meant moving four other lorries first. The move was not a lifestyle choice — it was the only way to keep growing without sending customers to a competitor.
38 jobs.
The move created 38 roles — drivers, batchers, fitters, design engineers, yard hands and admin staff. Most of those jobs are filled locally. North Devon is not flush with manufacturing employment; we are proud the move kept skilled jobs in the area and brought new ones with it. Today the team is 38 strong and we are still hiring on the production side. Anyone interested in joining us can read the current vacancies on the careers page.
The new plant.
A modern batching plant, longer casting beds, larger overhead cranes — and the room to run a proper factory production control system. Every batch is now logged electronically, every cube test traceable to the load. BS EN 13369 compliance is easier when the kit is built for it.
We doubled cement silo capacity, brought in a new computer-controlled mixer that holds water content to a tenth of a percent, and built a covered casting hall so winter pours no longer wait on the weather. A dedicated bespoke bay sits alongside the standard production line, which means one-off jobs no longer queue behind the day's cubicle run. For the customer the practical wins are shorter lead times, a longer working day at the yard, and capacity for the heavier prestressed sections we could not previously cast.
The biogas neighbour.
Across the road sits the Holsworthy Biogas Plant — operated by Severn Trent Green Power (a FTSE-100 utility). It takes farm slurry from across North Devon and turns it into renewable electricity. We supply precast components for AD plants of exactly that kind. Living next door to one is a useful reminder of who our engineering serves.
Circular economy.
The new yard re-uses concrete returns and aggregate fines back into non-structural pours. Process water is captured and recycled. Mould oils are bio-based where the spec allows. These are small things by themselves; together they shift the footprint of every panel we cast.
A good neighbour.
Moving a working concrete yard into a rural village is a real change for the community. We take being a good neighbour seriously — yard hours, dust suppression, traffic routing and a direct line for residents. Read the full community commitments page.