Polypipe Building Products were excited to welcome our Plastic Plumbing Ambassador Pointy Plumber to our Broomhouse Lane manufacturing site this week.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on our social channels, you’ll know that our partnership had a fantastic start with a VIP tour of our Neale Road manufacturing site earlier this year.
As a professional installer, Pointy knows that an efficient project relies on a harmonious relationship between every part of a system. So, we knew we couldn't stop at first-fix plumbing. Yesterday, we took him on the ultimate follow-up trip to our historic Broomhouse Lane (BHL) site to show him exactly where our extensive above and below ground ranges are born.
Back to Where It All Began
For us, Broomhouse Lane isn’t just another factory footprint. This site is the ultimate heart of our company heritage. BHL is where Polypipe was originally founded, serving as the proud home to Polypipe Group and subsequently Genuit Group for many years.
Showing Pointy around BHL was a great opportunity to show a modern installer exactly where it all started, tracing the roots of British manufacturing excellence right back to day one.
The Powerhouse Behind the Scenes
While Neale Road focuses on the intricate world of plastic plumbing pipe and fittings, BHL operates on an immense scale to bring the rest of the Polypipe Building Products product offering to life. From underground drainage to soil, waste and rainwater systems, it takes an extraordinary collective effort to keep up with demand.
To give Pointy an authentic, no-nonsense look at what goes into supporting the trade, we walked him through the sheer volume of work our BHL teams pull off year-round. While we keep our exact recipes under wraps, the sheer scale of the operation speaks for itself:
- Massive Production Capacity: Every single year, our team moulds tens of millions of individual items and extrudes millions of meters of pipe and profiles.
- Precision Assembly: We manage tens of millions of individual assembly jobs, turning raw components into the reliable above and below ground systems installers trust.
- Sustainability in Action: Reflecting our shared commitment to a greener future, BHL processes thousands of tonnes of PVC, PP, and ABS material annually - a massive portion of which is recycled material.
- On the Move: Once manufactured, our logistics network covers millions of road miles to ensure deliveries arrive on-site exactly when they are needed.
Driven by Quality, Built on #WeWorkTogether
As Pointy learned during his 'A Question of Regs' victory, true trade excellence relies on precision and standards. At BHL, that ethos is maintained every day by the teams working behind the scenes.
Our maintenance and tooling engineering teams handle thousands of preventative and corrective jobs to keep our machinery humming seamlessly. Meanwhile, our dedicated Quality Assurance teams execute tens of thousands of lab tests and individual inspection records, ensuring that every product leaving the floor meets our uncompromising standards.
It's this rigorous attention to detail that allows us to proudly maintain our ISO management accreditations (covering Quality, H&S, Environment, Energy, and BIM management) alongside our KM / BBA approvals on the thousands of product lines we produce.
A True 360-Degree View
Pointy understands the practical benefits that robust engineering brings to a busy job site. Giving him a look at both the plumbing focus at Neale Road and the heavy-duty above and below ground operations at BHL has given our ambassador a complete view of how Polypipe Building Products supports an installation from start to finish.
A massive thank you to Moulding Production Manager Karl Drury and the entire BHL team for giving Pointy such a warm welcome and for continuing to champion the standards that started right here all those years ago.
Make sure to follow @pointy_plumber and @polypipetrade on Instagram to catch the behind-the-scenes footage and content from his BHL site visit!