Window Production Resumes At Blairs Site

Window manufacturing has returned to the historic Greenock site with the starting up of a new business, ‘Blairs Windows’, 3 months after Blairs Ltd went into administration.

Local Inverclyde firm Arranglen Ltd, which has interests in property, transport and manufacturing, stepped in to purchase the factory, striking a deal with receivers Ernst and Young LLP to buy the five-acre site and framing machinery for an undisclosed sum. A spokesperson for Arranglen this week confirmed that a new company, Blairs Windows had now taken over the site and had begun manufacturing on April 4.

Blairs Ltd had been battling the effects of the economic downturn and on 6th January, Fiona Taylor and Colin Dempster of Ernst & Young LLP were appointed as joint receivers. The company remained in receivership despite an attempt by Performance Timber Products Group (PTPG) to purchase its assets and business.

But in March, Arranglen Ltd successfuly negotiated with Ernst and Young for the purchase of the manufacturing site in Baker Street, Greenock, with a view to re-establishing a window manufacturing business on the site.

The original company, founded in 1908, was a BWF member and one of the largest producers of bespoke timber windows in the UK. They employed 115 staff and manufactured a range of products including casement, tilt & turn, and sliding sash windows, in addition to a selection of doorsets. A spokesperson for Blairs Windows confirmed that the new company was, “producing a similar range of products in both hardwood and softwood and aiming at the same customer base as Blairs Ltd.”

30 people have been taken on initially at the site, but Arranglen Ltd are keen to re-establish further jobs, noting that, “The aim is obviously to increase this as the orders start to come in”. The spokesperson also added that the initial market reaction to the restart of window production at the site had been “very positive”.