Major expansion delivers Yorkshire’s largest galvanizing facility

Humber Galvanizing (part of the Wedge Group) has completed a multi-million-pound project to create what it claims is the biggest galvanizing bath in Yorkshire.

The business has increased capacity by approximately 50% due to a major expansion that includes the installation of new tanks and a substantial enlargement of its yard.

The new-look site, at Citadel Way, will be officially opened by Karl Turner, MP for East Hull, on May 17.

Humber Galvanizing General Manager Richard Speake said: “This is a major investment that will have a significant impact on the business.

“It will increase both the number and size of the jobs we’re able to do and that extra capacity will also boost our turnover.

“It’s a project that will give us the infrastructure we need to ensure we’re ‘Fit for the Future’ and the kind of platform from which we can grow even stronger.”

Expansion of the site, including the yard extension completed six months before, included major groundwork to extend an existing pit for the new main bath, which measures 7.5m-long, 1.2m-wide and 2.7m-deep.

Mr Speake added: “Our old bath wasn’t always big enough for some of the work that customers wanted and we’d have to send projects to one of our sister plants within the group.

“Now we have the size of bath that can cope with much longer lengths of steel and that will have fantastic implications for us moving forward.

“We’ve been at this site for 22 years and never up-scaled before so we’ve moved with the times and it’s an historic moment for us. It is also a commitment to the future of the business.”

The plant has also invested in two new ‘triple acid’ baths and made a string of changes in support of its commitment to health and safety.