National Abrasives – Ne
Profile by Peter Brett Perhaps it is prejudice on my part but I never expected that a major supplier of abrasives to the largest wholesalers and some of the “sheds” would be based in the desirable town of Reigate down in the “posh” southeast of England. Moreover, a trip down Reigate’s High Street with its upmarket shops, belies the fact that not five minutes from it by car, is a small industrial estate that is home to National Abrasives Ltd. Run by Carol & Stephen Furnell and family, the factory is a very busy one, with 20+ dedicated staff along with almost £1 million worth of production machinery. I was welcomed by
Managing Director Stephen Furnell, founder of the business in 2005 and then shown up to the boardroom along with a good mug of tea. Once seated and
surrounded by samples of the abrasives made and supplied by the company, the penny finally dropped that I could recognise most of the brands, packaging and sizes and shapes of the products, some of which I regularly use. National Abrasives produce for many companies, industrial, wholesale and retail. Some of its clients include Sia Abrasives UK, Machine Mart, Selco, Buildbase, TGR Import & Export for a large timber merchants, Hilton Banks, Hills DIY, Welch & Tidy and some products to Sealey and also B&Q, via Active Products - all huge names. They also Own brand Drywall abrasives into Canada, with their newly
developed in line printing of logos on the reverse of the paper. Clearly I needed to be made aware of the “secret” of National Abrasives
presence in the market. Stephen obliged by letting me in on a few facts and figures. He made clear that
National Abrasives does not make any of the basic abrasives itself. The explanation is simple – there is no need to make it yourself when high quality European products are available close by at a price that is highly competitive. There are a couple of other reasons for purchasing European abrasives – the first of these is that the best backing papers are all from Europe and from sustainable sources and National Abrasives are now FSC certified. The second reason is that Europeans (EC REACH rules) have phased out and found alternatives to the use of Formaldehyde based adhesives in abrasive production. National Abrasives is also a member of various trade bodies like the British
Abrasives Federation, the Federation of European Producers of Abrasives, BHETA and AWCI, so the company is always aware of the latest rules and regulations and innovations in the industry and this helps to guide the production of abrasives that are always fit for purpose and high quality. I can certainly appreciate that because I am very much of the opinion that using poor quality sandpapers is a waste of my precious time. Some other information might be useful too in helping to define the company –
it has an annual turnover of a few million Pounds Sterling. This may be due to the fact that it has the world’s largest known capacity for producing rolls of abrasives, slitting the huge “jumbo rolls” of abrasive into marketable belts, rolls, sheets and discs. Literally millions of meters of abrasive products are converted in the factory each year – each jumbo roll starting out on one of the company’s three slitting machines and then onto any of the five Mini rolls machines with a capacity of 30,000 5m rolls weekly. From the initial slitting the other machines are used to press out sanding discs,
delta sanding sheets, punched sheets in various formats, used by woodworkers, builders and decorators and automotive trades. The space needed for the machines that produce millions of sheets and discs is relatively small, so overheads are kept to a minimum. A large order of discs, for example, may only take hours to process because production is very flexible and easy to move from one product to another.
6 ToolBUSINESS+HIRE
www.toolbusiness.co.uk
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