BNL has completed the expansion of its plastic bearing operations in Thailand, moving operations to a state-of-the-art, larger facility, adjacent to the existing building. BNL Thailand supplies plastic bearings to several industries, including automotive, food processing, photocopiers, domestic appliances and ATM customers. The new 50,000 sq. ft. facility in Rayong will double capacity to support increasing demand of existing products and new business wins in key markets.

BNL Thailand houses injection moulding, manual and automated assembly functions, mirroring the established UK HQ operations, with the Knaresborough, North Yorkshire site also housing R&D, engineering, product design, quality, prototyping, tooling design and tool development capabilities. BNL China also offer additional machining services at their Shanghai site.

For the longer term, the new Thailand facility also has the option to not just double, but triple the previous factory footprint, to 75,000 sq. ft., increasing the current number of injection moulding machines on site by threefold, expanding assembly services and tripling the workforce.

The move to the new facility, managed almost exclusively by the BNL Thailand Management Team, took place throughout August and September making the site fully operational in October.

Jonathan Wilkinson, CEO of BNL stated, “Our team in Thailand have done a fantastic job in making this development happen quickly and efficiently. I shouldn’t be surprised; we employ great people in all our facilities and Thailand is no exception. Our customers are our other key partners, collaborating with us to develop innovative plastic bearing solutions. We are encouraged by their support for our expansion and understanding of how our growth will in turn offer them new and improved services with which to develop and grow their own businesses.”