UK cleaning and detergent manufacturer RP Adam Ltd (Arpal Group) has unveiled plans to increase annual production by 50 per cent.
The company is planning to invest more than £2.75 million in its global operations across the UK and the Middle East in a two-year bid to reach production targets of 12 million litres of liquid and 650,000kg of powder product to satisfy increased customer demand.
The UK’s leisure, hospitality and gaming sector is a key growth area for Arpal, with current annual sales in this sector exceeding £1.5 million, representing 10 per cent of total group sales. This next phase investment will focus on factory and warehouse expansion, filling equipment, customer support systems and extra manpower geared to expanding market share in these fast growing and demanding sectors.
Arpal Group’s sales & marketing director Max Adam, explains: “The Arpal Group deals with some of the UK’s best known leisure and hospitality operators in the UK and UAE including Bourne Leisure, the Rank Group and Jumeirah Group. We recognise that cleanliness is one of the most important factors influencing the guest experience and we offer specialist products to satisfy the unique demands of this market.
Areal offers chemicals concentrates, kitchen hygiene, housekeeping and professional laundry ranges.
Max added: “This next investment phase will allow us to increase our resources, production capacities and level of service commitment in this fast-growing sector to an higher level – backed by strong values of integrity and trust which underpin everything we do.”
Central to Arpal Group’s UK expansion strategy will be a significantly increased turnover with national distribution partners – especially in the networks covered by janitorial and catering consumables and foodservice distributors. These include the larger national logistics companies like Alliance Disposables, Brakes & Bunzl, as well as numerous long-standing regional partners.
“We primarily access the UK end-user customer market through an extensive network of regional and national distribution partners,” Max adds.
“Around 90% of end-user business currently goes through a reseller, and this is where our aspiration to reach growth targets can be really accelerated. We now want to grow our UK distributor network, especially in niche markets where our service offering provides something a little different.
“We want to focus on what we do best, and that is developing and manufacturing high quality cleaning solutions backed by an outstanding service to end-user business consumers on behalf of our distributor partners.”
This investment phase is the final phase of Arpal Group’s five-year ‘20/20’ investment programme, launched in 2015 as the fourth-generation family-owned business approached its 125th year in business. So far, more than £1.5 million has already been injected in the global business as part of the 20/20 programme.
Martin Carroll, Arpal Group’s Technical Director, believes the next phase investment makes a significant statement of intent for the company. “These are exciting times for Arpal Group both at home and abroad,” he says.
“The UK represents the engine room of our 20/20 ambition and the next two years will focus primarily on factory expansion at our Selkirk HQ to allow more space for raw materials, packaging, and production lines to meet increased demand – including plans for a new purpose-built £500,000 on site warehousing facility.
“Our increased production and turnover targets reflect our aggressive ambition to take on the large global competition as well as the smaller ‘no frills’ suppliers by providing significant commercial and customer-service benefits in demanding sectors, where service matters most.”
