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Don & Low Ltd, Building for the future

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Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer
Published : March 2002

The economies achieved by the recent opening of a single site weaving facility have given Don & Low Ltd the leverage to compete even more effectively in international markets. Robert Dunn, managing director and Martin Reid, manufacturing manager talk to Jayne Flannery.

Two centuries ago, linen and jute were the mainstay of Don & Low, one of Scotland's oldest companies. Today, it is a leading European manufacturer of polypropylene based industrial textiles, converting bought in polypropylene resin into woven and nonwoven products. Don & Low built up its reputation as a supplier of quality woven carpet backings. However, no company that was founded as far back as 1792 can continue to prosper without an eye for a promising opportunity.

More recently, Don & Low has also turned its attention to the market potential of specialised industrial textiles where advanced technological know-how offers the opportunity for significant growth and higher margins. Taking a quantum leap forward with the aid of the latest fabric technology has allowed the company to find numerous additional niche applications for both its woven and nonwoven products spanning an ever widening spectrum from electric blankets and training shoes to road drainage.

There was, however, an obstacle in Don & Low's path. The weaving facility at Forfar was split across two sites producing a stream of logistical headaches and unwanted overheads. These problems were exacerbated by the strength of sterling over the last decade and the relentless downward pressure on margins exerted by a mature core market in carpet backings.

A solution to the downward pressure on costs has been found in the form of a new custom built weaving facility which opened last year and now adjoins the existing extrusion and nonwoven sites. The reasoning behind the investment was simple. "To compete on an international basis, we had to lower our cost base," states Robert Dunn, managing director. Consolidating the company's woven manufacturing operations on a single greenfield site was the culmination of a long-held ambition. "The opening of this facility last year marked the realisation of our single site strategy," he says.

"It has been an ongoing objective to get on to one site to achieve economies of scale and reduce our overheads. It has also made the flow of materials much more efficient and eliminated the need we had previously for transportation between various sites," adds Martin Reid, manufacturing manager. He points out that in line with the investment made in the greenfield site itself, Don & Low has also made further significant investment in new equipment, including cutting, handling and packing machinery.

The domestic market has long been too small to either absorb Don & Low's output or satisfy the management team's international ambitions. "We already had a high export component to the business," says Dunn. "Exports account for 40 per cent of our output across the business but now we are in a better position to make a big thrust to sell more to mainland Europe." He explains that Don & Low's shareholder, Thrace Plastics has a similar size operation in Greece that mainly serves southern Europe. The new facility at Forfar will enable Don & Low to concentrate on the extended opportunities available in the more developed northern European markets.

The building that has made this possible is no ordinary structure. Environmental and cost reduction considerations were at the forefront of the design process. The vagaries of the northern climate have been put to impressive use. "As just one example of the sort of energy saving features that have been built into the site, we have 23,000 sq metres of roof area that we are using to collect rain water which we store before re-using in the manufacturing process. It has reduced our need to buy in water by 75 per cent." says Reid.

The temperature and climate control system is also a masterpiece of design. "We make use of the residual heat from the equipment and then blend it with fresh air to achieve a constant temperature within one degree plus or minus across the whole manufacturing area," he explains. The heat generated by 244 weaving machines is circulated around the building and expelled through automatically controlled louvres when the temperature rises in warmer weather. The building is both self-heating and self-ventilating, representing an enormous saving "Through measures such as this we have seen our energy to output ratio improved by eight per cent," adds Reid. Weaving machines make a lot of noise and another feature is specialised sound attenuating insulation to prevent 'nuisance' noise in the vicinity.

Already, the new facility is running close to capacity, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week around the year. The continuous extrusion and weaving operation is monitored by vigorous quality controls - Don & Low is accredited to the BS5750 and ISO9002 quality standards. "It is a volume sensitive operation," says Reid. "Our equipment has a very high utilisation factor so maintenance and planning are issues that we take very seriously. The nature of our production scheduling is such that we rely on a very high availability of machinery. All maintenance is carried out in-house as part of an ongoing process aimed at minimising machinery downtime."

Primary and secondary carpet backing still dominates output, but geotextiles and technically advanced products for agricultural and general industrial applications represent an increasingly important additional revenue stream. Lotrak, the brand name under which Don & Low markets its range of woven geotextiles, is now established at the forefront of the UK market. It has found applications as diverse as road building, airport construction, coastal protection and drainage systems.

"Woven products account for 22,000 tonnes of our 30,000 tonne output each year. It is the traditional core of the business and we are confident that we can continue to move forward in this market," says Dunn. "Floor coverings account for a large share of our overall woven business and we are seeing growth in sales of secondary backings to replace the original jute backings that used to be favoured by carpet manufacturers. However, the market for carpet backings is essentially mature and products are marketed as commodities."

It is this fact that has fired Don & Low's interest in the new generation of nonwoven products - this market is still in its infancy and new applications are constantly emerging. "We have seen sales of nonwoven products double over the last five years and we believe that we can double it again. In future we will be manufacturing more of these technologically advanced products," states Dunn.

Already, Don & Low has achieved wide critical acclaim for its nonwoven range and is the only UK company to manufacture and market these highly engineered fabrics. The nonwoven range of spunbonded and laminated fabrics, bought together under the umbrella of the Daltex brand. It is a versatile material - so far it has found applications in the construction, filtration, agricultural crop cover, furniture, bedding and medical industries amongst others and the list continues to grow. "We are renowned in the marketplace not just for the quality of our products, but also because we get very close to our customers to really understand their needs and requirements," says Reid.

Don & Low also manufactures around 2,000 tonnes per annum of industrial yarn - many carpet manufacturers are switching from jute and cotton yarns to a polypropylene product. Sold under the brand name Donfil, these yarns also enjoy an unrivalled reputation with manufacturers of curtain heading tape. Taking the technology a stage further has enabled Don & Low to secure a position as the market leader in the supply of telecommunication identification tapes and demand for Donfil for this purpose is now coming from as far afield as Australasia.

"Our aim now that the new facility is complete is to continue to produce and sell more and reduce our cost base relative to our output," explains Dunn. "We are constantly trying to improve the mix of the products we sell and offer more added value to our customer base."

However, it is also part of Don & Low's current strategy to move into new geographical markets, and establish new applications for our range of products. The natural evolution of the marketplace is constantly finding new applications for current technology. "There is also potential in our existing markets to increase sales," he adds.

Don & Low is currently converting around 30,000 tonnes of polypropylene each year. With the number of end uses for its products increasing all the time, both men are convinced that there is scope both to increase the company's output and improve on existing margins. "Any further investment will be geared to increasing our capacity to serve selected growth markets. I have every confidence in our new facility and in the workforce that we can make this happen," states Dunn. He points out that Don & Low has been around a very long time and he has every intention that its future should be equally successful.