A HIGHBRIDGE bathroom pod manufacturer said it has had a record £32 million of orders in the last six months despite uncertainties surrounding Brexit.
Offsite Solutions, the UK's leading bathroom pod manufacturer, announced this week it has had £32m of orders for more than 9,500 units in the last six months, a record performance and a significant increase on the same period last year.
The business said it also has a healthy live quote bank, which has increased in value by around 10 per cent.
James Stephens, managing director of Offsite Solutions, said: "This performance contrasts sharply with the UK manufacturing figures released last month which indicate a downturn and a six-year low in production.
"We have continued to grow the business year-on-year and the outlook remains buoyant with such a strong forward order book.
"The volume of UK projects using bathroom pods continues to increase, as this approach to offsite manufacturing has become a more standard method of procurement, particularly in sectors such as build-to-rent.
"We have continued to grow market share and diversify into new areas such as retirement living and timber-framed housing. This is testament to our team's consistently outstanding performance in delivering every bathroom project to the highest standards, and is reflected in the high number of repeat customers we now have.
"There is still great uncertainty around Brexit, but the use of bathroom pods gives contractors and developers a much higher degree of certainty, as costs can be fixed at an earlier point in the construction procurement cycle. A UK manufacturer will also minimise any risk of currency fluctuations."
James said Brexit will continue to reduce the amount of site based labour available and he thinks by moving bathroom construction into a factory the risk of 'inflationary increases' from labour and materials is significantly reduced.
He said he also thinks customers will be benefit from a 'better engineered, higher quality product.'
Offsite Solutions have been awarded contracts in the last six months across a range of sectors including build-to-rent, apartments for market sale, hotels and retirement living, with student accommodation representing the largest market for bathroom pods so far this year.
These projects will be delivered through to 2020.
The latest contracts include more than 500 pods for student accommodation developer urbanest at Vine Street in London which is under construction by Balfour Beatty, and 778 steel-framed pods for Henry Construction in Croydon - a build-to-rent scheme for HUB.
