Working with business growth hub to reduce energy consumption

Founded in 1968, Newhey Carpets is a family business and a leading supplier of contract carpets to the hotel and leisure market. It employs 50 staff at its factory in Rochdale.

Green Growth has already helped Newhey to identify annual resource efficiency savings of £20,000. The savings were achieved by upgrading heating and lighting in parts of the factory, investing in efficient production equipment and launching an innovative solvent-free adhesive backing system to replace the traditional latex backing system.

Keen to stay at forefront of the sector in terms of reducing its environmental impact, Green Growth has been working with Newhey Carpets since January 2014 to help extend best practice throughout the factory.

Further potential savings were identified through additional heating and lighting upgrades, and the introduction of energy management controls on site. These opportunities already have the potential to save the company £20,000 in annual electricity and fuel costs, as well as reduce its annual carbon footprint by 118 tonnes of CO2e.

A further annual saving of 210 tonnes of CO2e is also in the pipeline through the use of recycled content in raw materials and a reduction in adhesive use to apply carpet backing.

Green Growth environmental business advisor, Claire Scott, also assisted Newhey Carpets in developing content for the sustainability section their website, covering everything from its environmental commitments to equipment upgrades and eco design innovations.

Claire Scott said: “Newhey Carpets’ appetite for continually improving its environmental performance is a key part of its business model; it is reaping the rewards from investing in resource efficiency innovations and being able to offer its customers low impact products.”

Green Growth has helped to introduce Newhey Carpets to other useful support services, including UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), to help the company explore overseas markets, and the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS), now part of the national Business Growth Service.

The company also benefitted from the opportunity to meet business secretary, Vince Cable, at a ministerial visit to the Business Growth Hub in January 2015.

Lees Whitehead, managing director of Newhey Carpets, said: “We are a family company committed to reducing the environmental impact of our products and processes. The Green Growth programme has been hugely helpful in helping us build a business case for new investments and ensure we remain on top of our game in terms of reducing our carbon footprint.”