Ibstock revives investment plans

Ibstock has revived plans for a new brick factory at its Atlas site in Walsall.Ibstock plans to invest £60m in its Atlas and neighbouring Aldridge plants to deliver 115 million brick capacity.The existing mothballed Atlas facility will be replaced with a new wire-cut clay brick factory. It is expected to be the first net zero carbon brick-manufacturing facility in the UK.The investment plan was first announced in early 2020 but put on hold when the Covid-19 pandemic forced building sites to close.However, with brick demand now back being greater than the domestic manufacturers capacity to supply, Ibstock has brought its plans back to life, but with an increase in capacity and further enhancements to deliver improved environmental performance. The project also now includes investment to upgrade and expand capacity at the adjacent Aldridge brick factory.In January this year Ibstock claimed to be the UK’s first building products manufacturer to buy 100% of its electricity from renewable sources. (See: Ibstock ditches fossil fuel electricity)Today it said that the new Atlas factory would have “outstanding sustainability characteristics, incorporating state of the art technology, with significantly reduced process emissions, resulting in a major reduction in carbon intensity”.