Werner — a US-based manufacturer of ladders and towers — is investing more than $1.8 million in its manufacturing
facility in Maldon, Essex, including the installation of a state-of-the-art laser cutter.

The company has bought a new BLM Adige fibre-optic laser cutter to cut treads for its fibre-glass step-ladders, box-section stringers for its extension ladders and tower components. It has also added a further 2,300sq m of warehousing.

Manufacturing engineering manager John Darby said: "The state of the art machine from Italy was an investment of over $1.2m and forms part of the overall production site improvements in WernerCo's Maldon UK plant.

"The investment in this second laser cutting machine prevents any need for outsourcing and provides an increase in capacity to support growth. The new machinery enables cutting for the D-Rung ladder stiles and GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) treads and horizontals. More critically this investment improves and streamlines production processes, following the production lines moving from our Belper site."


In November, the company opened a new national distribution centre in Burton Upon Trent. As a result, over 3,300sq m of production space in Maldon has been freed up to absorb the work resulting from the closure of a plant in Belper.