AG has confirmed it will complete a multi-million investment programme this year. The news comes as sales of its innovative building materials soar across the UK and Ireland.

The Tyrone-headquartered firm has recently invested more than £2m across its sites including in the form of a state-of-the-art Batching Plant, new Prensoland saw and the refurbishment of a number of Hollowcore Beds at Ballygawley, a new curing chamber to increase both capacity and efficiency at Fivemiletown and new lorries joining their fleet in Ireland.

And this week it confirmed a further £2m investment on a new Wash Plant at Fivemiletown that will safeguard the future of the business until 2057.

AG Group Chief Financial Officer, Keith Scott says the investments are a response to the ‘strategic needs’ and ‘opportunities’ within the business.

“Recent significant increases in sales of our hard landscaping, building and structural precast products, especially in Britain, have driven the need to increase both efficiencies and capacity.

The washing of aggregate from our Fivemiletown quarry will provide better consistency in terms of size and cleanliness which will lead to increased quality in our finished products and reduced manufacturing effort. The Batching plant in Ballygawley will allow us to develop more advanced mix designs leading to more efficient and quicker production with better quality finishes in our Precast products.

These investments, coupled with extended overtime shifts at both Ballygawley and Fivemiletown will equip us to continue our growth trajectory whilst driving up capacity across the business.”

GB sales now account for almost 60% of group turnover which currently stands at £36.5m – up year on year from £35.5m.

Keith Scott says AG’s business success can be largely attributed to its focus on innovation and new product development.

“Our greatest success stories come from our desire to help solve problems through the creation of ground-breaking build materials. 

“Our recently re-branded PlateSpan is a good example of a product that can save weeks on build programmes whilst our top-mix paving sought to solve the problem of fading colours by concentrating the colour in a stronger surface. TerraPave® meanwhile was created to solve the problem of specifiers needing to import granite materials from places like China by factory-engineering a superior product that could be made locally.”

The CFO added a major order had been secured for its mortarless brick cladding product, Novabrik® which can be applied to the outer skins of buildings without the need for a skilled bricklayer.

“Given the dearth of bricklayers across the UK and Ireland and current explosion within the social housing sector we are anticipating significant further interest in Novabrik®.”

Established in 1960, AG is one of the most trusted concrete producers in Northern Ireland and beyond. Now an employer of more than 420, across nine sites located at Fivemiletown, Dungannon, Ballygawley, Birmingham, Magherafelt, Carryduff, Toome, Pomeroy and Derry it remains a family-run business, committed to the highest standards of product quality, company culture and staff care.