Ebble Group move into new premises

At the start of 2023, Ebble Group, which consists of Tantec-UK and Ebble Manufacturing, have moved in to their new facility as they plan for growth and further support for new and old customers alike.

“We’ve had a plan since starting the business to be both the key supplier of plasma and corona treatment equipment. Also to have increased support for UK and Irish customers – improving our product ranges and engineering support”

Chris Howey, Managing Director of Ebble Group wants to ensure that the business is improving as the UK and Irish markets increase demand. Not only for volume of products, but also for the standard of products and services they receive.

Finding New Premises

Investment in new premises has been tricky, firstly there had seemed to be very few suitable buildings in the local area and secondly making sure that the new services and products would have somewhere to go within the move time frame. The site that came up wasn’t perfect, but it will allow for a sensible transition for the growth of the business over the next three to five years.

“One big thing to notice when visiting our new site is the lack of office space. A suitable site with the right balance of offices and production seemed impossible. So we made a creative, potentially mad decision to build log cabins in the production hall to house offices, meeting rooms and labs. In the end they have come out really smart and stand out rather than a potentially run down office environment”

While taking time to build and get right, the modular log cabins give a great balance of flexibility for current team members and business requirements. At the same time allowing us to add more in the future if things change. They’re also fairly unique… we haven’t seen many businesses with this kind of set up!

Next Steps for Ebble Group

The key requirement for a larger premises has been to house engineering and new equipment. The new equipment in particular will allow for customers to see larger real world systems first hand rather than lab versions which can make a big difference to people in the confidence of what they want to have on their own site.

The systems will also be used for contract manufacturing for the Ebble Manufacturing side of the business which has been running on a small scale for a number of years, but needed the space and investment to truly flourish.

“Ebble Manufacturing has been a dream of mine for a number of years. The amount of customers that approach us looking to buy technology to find that they can’t get the amount signed off, or the process won’t fit in their factory has always been disappointing to us trying to get the technology out there, and for customers who want to use the technology. Contract manufacturing allows customers to use us for small scale production to get used to us, mid-scale production while their own machines are built or long term production where they would rather let us handle everything.”

Investment in systems such as the VacuTEC 8080 in 2022 have proven invaluable to customers who have come in and used the larger system. It’s use is only set to increase with production slots being taken up frequently on the system. Further systems and other technologies will join now the space is available and see the versatility of Ebble Manufacturing, and the support of Tantec-UK improve dramatically over the coming years.

“We are really excited to fill the new space. We’ve already got the equipment planned to buy and the factory floor space laid out ready to go. The new site gives us nearly 5x the space we used to have so the growth over the next few years and the offering we can give is going to improve significantly! We can’t wait!”