Brickworks will invest $30 million in a state-of-the-art terracotta roof tile plant for Bristile Roofing in Western Australia.
The facility will be able to produce innovative products that are not currently produced in Australia, in addition to traditional roofing products.
The existing roof tile plant at Caversham will receive a complete refit with work commencing in early 2012 with commissioning expected to commence in August of the same year.
The company says innovative new products will be able to be manufactured at Caversham
Robert Millner, Chairman of Brickworks, said: “The upgraded factory will enable the business to supply innovative products not just in Western Australia, but across the country for decades to come.”
The upgraded plant will be used to enable the business to keep pace with the changing fashions in roof tiles and customer expectations of increasingly higher quality products.
Production capacity for the plant will be 16 million tiles per annum and the production equipment will be sourced from the leading roof tile plant suppliers in the world, including the Italian company Bongioanni.
“Bristile Roofing has a solid history of providing outstanding customer service and quality “colour for life” roofing during the last 82 years. Over this time Bristile Roofing has been proud to supply product to the
building industry across Australia, from housing to institutions. This investment in a sustainable business
model will secure Bristile Roofing’s future as a manufacturer of terracotta roof tiles in Australia,” added Mr Lindsay Partridge, Managing Director of Brickworks Limited.
The additional investment will support the development of the new product range in the most modern roof tile plant in Australia.
The upgraded plant will replace the majority of the existing plant at Caversham.
Some of the expected improvements in efficiency include a substantial reduction in labour costs, reduced product waste through improved quality and increased fuel efficiency. The driving force behind the upgrade is innovative and very high quality roofing products, rivaling the best in the world, ensuring Bristile Roofing’s market positioning for the next generation.
Brickworks Limited was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1962 and has paid a dividend every year since then. It has three Groups - Building Products, Land and Development and Investments. The Building Products Group includes Australia’s largest brick producer Austral Bricks™, Austral Masonry, Bristile Roofing™ and Austral Precast.
