Sussex modular builder plans new factory

Boutique Modern will start building a new factory in Newhaven this year and increase staff headcount from 70 to 105 to double production capacity.Based in Newhaven, in East Sussex, Boutique Modern specialises in social and affordable housing but also manufacturers the occasional ‘grand design’.In its current workshop in Beach Road it is operating at full capacity. In the year to June 2022 (its most recently filed accounts) it generated revenues of £8.6m.Boutique Modern has been given planning permission by Lewes District Council to build a new factory in Avis Way, Newhaven, and plans to move in at the end of this year.The empty site in Avis Way was previously occupied by a large workshop, store and office building that was demolished in 2021 and the space is currently used by Boutique Modern for the temporary storage of off-site housing modules.When the new factory opens at the end of this year, it will enable the business to operate two manufacturing lines. At full capacity the factory will be capable of producing up to 125 houses or 250 flats per year, while maintaining flexibility in its output to manage market peaks and troughs, the company said.Managing director Dick Shone said: “This will prepare us for the next exciting phase when we open satellite factories in other areas with housing demand. Each new factory will create upwards of 100 new jobs and generate more than £20m for the local economy per year, per facility.”He added: “The Boutique Modern business model has been developed over more than 10 years to allow us to open satellite factories in locations where there is housing demand.“Instead of growing one large factory capable of producing thousands of homes in a single location, the Avis Way Factory will allow us the opportunity to pilot setting up in a new facility with our existing processes and systems before we expand to other sites, thereby enabling the sustainable growth of our business.”