The land of Greyland
Tomorrow’s Cleaning Editor, Charlotte Taylor, RSVPs to her personal invite to visit the new home of Greyland with a definite yes.
One of my favourite parts of my job is getting out there to see the industry. I don’t always get the opportunity – running a magazine is a hectic job – but I really enjoy it when I do.
When Greyland told me they were moving into new premises over Christmas, not only was I impressed, but I was excited to find out more – it isn’t often that you hear of companies growing bigger in this current climate and I was keen to find out what Greyland’s secret was!
As with any visit, a SatNav is a basic requirement, but as we pulled into the Tameside Park Industrial Estate, in Cheshire, our SatNav was redundant as you could see the brand new Greyland sign from the entrance!
Following the sign, we parked up, ready to find out more.
First a little history Sat with Managing Director, Richard Dyson, in one of the brand-new boardrooms with a lovely cup of coffee, I admired the new surroundings and discussed Greyland’s progress so far, before we embarked on the grand tour.
22 | TOMORROW’S CLEANING | The future of our cleaning industry FEATURE
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Greyland began in early 1999; started by a team of seven with vast industry experience. The team started up with their own ethos: “a good product and presentation, delivered quickly, to enable distributors to minimise their stocks and use our production reliability and fast delivery to enhance their business.” Thirteen years on, this is something that is still in practice today, as a thriving UK cleaning chemicals manufacturer.
By 2001, the company had 40 customers. At that point Richard took the reins as Managing Director. Year on year, the company grew steadily and to date they have over 350 UK and European distributors with a turnover in excess of £4million – with a 25% increase since last year alone.
As business thrived and so did the orders and customers, it became clear that the old factory didn’t have the capacity to grow with Greyland; with height restrictions and space becoming more and more cramped.
This clearly marked the need for bigger and better premises, which is why, in the Autumn
of last year, Greyland made an investment into the new 34,000 square foot factory based in Cheshire, on the eastern edge of Manchester and just minutes from the UK motorway network.
The big move As with any business, a move isn’t something that can be done overnight, particularly when business is good and temporarily closing down the factory just isn’t a viable option. This, paired with last-minute Christmas orders and the Christmas break in general, made the move a massive operation.
The actual move itself began on 23rd December, with every staff member chipping in and even working over the Christmas break, the new factory was up and running to almost full capacity by 3rd January. Impressive considering the extreme size of the place and the fact that we all know how tricky it is to get our water supply sorted!
Despite moving a decent distance away from the old premises in Stockport, the entire Greyland team committed to the move; with every single team member choosing to stay
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