CCG's purchase of £4.15m plant aims to lead the way in production of 'green' timber, says, Bob Serafini

A BOLD property move by a Lanarkshire company is intended to pave the way for an innovative new manufacturing plant which would give Scotland a lead over the rest of the UK.

The £100m turnover construction and development firm CCG - which already employs 600 people from its base in Cambuslang - has revealed plans to expand its off-site manufacturing expertise into another technology.

It has bought a new 122,000 sq ft production plant called Titan at Eurocentral for £4.15m, where it is proposing to establish a factory manufacturing cross laminated timber (CLT) - a strong, highly efficient and 'green' building material which can be used in many commercial and residential structures.

The company's existing semi-automated off-site facilities at Glasgow East Investment Park already push the boundaries of sustainable construction, with the 130,000 sq ft operation capable of producing up to 3000 closed panel buildings a year, often complete with value added features such as insulation, doors, windows and external claddings in brick or render.

The new CLT system would offer greater rigidity, meaning it offers advantages in taller buildings such as flats, and would enjoy similar features engineered in during production.

But this alternative construction system is not currently manufactured in the UK and has to be imported from countries such as Russia and Scandinavia, adding cost and undermining its potential environmental advantages.

CCG has been working on the idea for three years, and, with support from Scottish Enterprise, initiated a project with Napier University to test the market, future potential, competition and feasibility, which confirmed there was a robust case for this concept.

It then took some home grown timber, machined and dried to the required moisture content, over to Germany for manufacture into test panels by a company called Derix. These were delivered to a technical institute in Graz in Austria and tested for viability.

Chairman and chief executive Alastair Wylie, speaking exclusively to The Herald, said that while at an early stage he would require to import raw material from abroad, it was his hope to challenge that supply chain and bring further benefits to Scotland. "Do the sawmills here want to produce timber for fence panels, posts and pallets, or do they want to up their game and produce quality timber, to appreciate the potential of investment to enable the right moisture content that would be required?

"Timber is a favourable product in terms of carbon footprint in construction, and we believe that this aspect is very important to the industry and will continue to be high on the national agenda. I know of no other firm that can build to the same extent off-site as we can - in a housing form - in the UK. We already have our manufacturing knowledge, we've done our homework, and the statistics all point in the right direction.

"People who have researched this for us have told us there is a tremendous demand for this product, with national UK companies receptive to modern methods of construction like this, reducing wastage and inefficiency and helping to address weather-related issues."

Wylie acknowledges that investing £4m in Titan is a big move for this private-funded business, but remains confident enough to have circulated the footprint and autocad drawings of his newly-acquired building round five CLT equipment manufacturers and installers in Germany. The custom-built equipment, with lines capable of adding higher value elements such as external finishes, would take nine months to manufacture, and perhaps the same again before it could be operational.

Nevertheless, the company has already identified its first CLT project, at Yoker, where it has lined up a design team including Smith and Wallwork, engineers specialising in low carbon construction, and is in discussion with planners on a seven-storey block.

Neil Cockburn, who advised CCG on the property deal, revealed that the negotiations took six months to complete as there were 62 names involved in the syndicate who effectively owned the building, each of whom had to sign it off. The final one came in from China just weeks before a ruling was due in court to resolve the issue.

Andrew McCracken of JLL, joint selling agents with CBRE, said four parties had bid for this prime property at the closing date: "With Titan being sold and the lack of any large modern industrial units, this only strengthens the argument for speculative new build development. Until this happens, secondary locations are only going to get stronger."

CCG has already demonstrated a successful track record, particularly in social housing, with involvement in the Athletes' Village at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where it produced 237 houses in 14 months.

The firm, which also underpins its social responsibility by pledging that 10 per cent of its workforce are apprentices, clearly believes it has demonstrated its part in a potentially ground-breaking public private partnership by putting down a marker with its investment.

Given the high cost of commissioning the new plant, it is no surprise that discussions have been taking place with Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government about the level of assistance available.

It remains to be seen whether Scotland's politicians and enterprise chiefs recognise the opportunity of the economic development coup if they are able to confirm the first CLT manufacturing facilities in the UK.