It’s an efficient process, and one that makes impressive use of recycled office waste. Over the course of a year, Northwood recycles more than 55,000 tonnes of this waste, filtering out contaminants and extracting the fibre which can be reclaimed as raw material. It’s not just external waste that gets recycled either – every single offcut is recycled directly back into the manufacturing process too.
At the Telford site, these huge Parent Reels are the first thing that I was greeted by on my tour of the facility. The reels are carefully loaded onto an Unwinder in one of Northwood’s huge Gambini automated converting lines, which have helped the company massively increase the speed and scale of their operations.
When the Gambini is set in motion, the process is a fascinating and hypnotic exercise in automation. The unwound paper is fed through an embosser (with lamination if needed), and through to a rewinder, where the paper is affixed back onto smaller rolls, sealed and shuffled onto a massive accumulator.
From here, each of these ‘logs’ is loaded into a sawing machine, where a circular blade slices each log down to the correct unit size. From here, the newly cut rolls are shuffled along for wrapping, sealed within packaging before being loaded onto pallets, ready for distribution.
Thanks to the enhanced productivity of the Gambini machines, at full capacity Northwood can create 500,000 toilet rolls per day, and with such an incredible rate of output, understandably the amount of warehousing required is huge. In order to deal with high demand, the Telford HQ has installed an additional building on-site – dubbed the ‘tent’ – in order to ensure stock levels can be effectively managed when the Gambini machines are firing on all cylinders.
However, it’s not just toilet rolls that get made at Northwood’s facilities, and each of the company’s core brands has different requirements and specifications. Thanks to the Gambini machines, switching production lines over is a simpler process than ever, allowing the company to quickly adjust to meet their needs.
With the luxury tissue required for the premium Whisper range, the pure pulp tissue of the Optimum Professional range, or the 100% recycled Essentials range of tissue and wiping solutions, Northwood has a solution for every corner of the AfH professional paper hygiene and wiping product market. Northwood also offer their own systems, such as the new North Shore range of tissue and soap dispensers.
It’s hard not to be impressed with the scale and efficiency of Northwood’s operation, and that even stretches as far as the company’s logistics. Northwood’s fleet delivers to every corner of the British Isles, and as part of the company’s sustainability concerns, all vehicles are automatic, compliant with Euro 6 emissions standards, and can meet the conditions of the London Low Emission Zone.
While many would see this as everything necessary to tick an environmental responsibility checklist, Northwood take this a step further by training their drivers in ecological driving, which has resulted in a 10% reduction in fuel
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consumption. Routes are planned to ensure maximum capacity and efficiency, and to avoid making empty runs, paper waste is collected throughout the transport network to ensure, wherever possible, journeys can be productive and not wasteful.
This extra effort to going the extra mile exemplifies Northwood’s commitment to being both a comprehensive market partner and a responsible manufacturer. Being fully vertically integrated means the company can take control of every part of the supply chain, from the raw material supply through to transportation of the finished goods.
www.northwood.co.uk
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