Over the last year or two, there has been significant growth at Garmendale. We’ve grown our design, fabrication and fitting teams to be able to deliver this work. What this has meant for the workshop teams recently is that we’ve been bursting at the seams in order to manufacture our rides in our existing two fabrication and fitting shops at our UK Head Office in Derbyshire.

But the exciting news is that we’re adding an additional 6,200 sqft (575sqm) in the shape of an entirely new production unit, right next to our existing offices.

Work will be carried out over the next few months to fully prepare it for life as a purpose-built fitting shop.

The first stage is to bring in a brand new, bespoke overhead crane.

With a safe working load of 8,000kg and a lift height of 5.5 metres, it’s clear that it’s already quite sizeable. But when you factor in the span of nearly 19m and a length of 22m and you soon realise that it is HUGE.

The footers for these have been dug in, ready for the crane fixings and each trench that’s been dug out will be filled with well over a tonne of concrete.

In addition, there will be all-new low impact lighting, designed specifically for safe working. This will ensure lower running costs as well as more consistent lighting across the whole entire floor area.

Speaking about the new workshop, David Shelmerdine, Garmendale’s Managing Director said.

“We’ve been operating out of the same units since we started in 1982 and as we’ve grown, space has just got tighter and tighter.”

And then with a bit of a grin on his face he added.

“This new build allows us to create a fresh new working space from scratch. The team will be delighted as it will give them more space and nicer conditions too. Speaking to the Workshop Manager, I’ve told him that I’m expecting higher productivity from his team as a thank you.”

We’ll keep you up to date with pictures as the build progresses.