Shackerley has welcomed Boris Johnson to its Chorley site where 70 of the company’s 100-strong workforce are employed.
The visitors heard how Shackerley, an independent, family-owned SME, had developed the UK market for ceramic granite ventilated cladding systems throughout the noughties with its pioneering Sureclad system – winner of a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category, and today the clear market leader.
In the factory the party saw how Shackerley transforms exceptionally hard and strong large format ceramic granite slabs into fully prefabricated facade panels, ready to deliver to site for rapid installation onto a Sureclad support system. They saw the substantial investment made in bespoke engineering facilities, developed in-house to give Shackerley the capacity to cope with its exponential growth in demand.
The Mayor of London was surprised to discover that Shackerley was also a key supplier to London Underground (LU) and Network Rail. He heard how, over the past 15 years, Shackerley has helped to make hundreds of Tube and overground rail stations more accessible and safer for those with visual impairments with its ceramic granite All Weather Tactile Tiles designed to highlight potential hazards such as ramps, staircases and, critically, platform edges. Brian Newell commented: “We are absolutely delighted that Shackerley was specially selected for this high profile visit by Boris Johnson. It was a superb opportunity to show him how we have managed to make a massive impact in the worlds of architecture and construction across the whole of the UK, and I was particularly pleased to reveal to him how many exciting high profile projects we are working on in his beloved capital city.”
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