Microdat aims to double turnover at new site

The firm, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, is moving to a 48,000 sq ft building at Millshaw Industrial Park in Leeds, doubling its current head office space.

Microdat said the move from its current base in Lowfields Road, south-west Leeds, would enable the firm to expand further.

The firm has a £5m turnover but it plans to double that to £10m by the end of the year following a number of new products and contract wins.

Microdat has formed a formal partnership with China-based Lehui to sell its range of brewery equipment within the UK and Ireland, including microbrewies, canning lines, bottling lines and tanks.

Meanwhile, the company has signed a deal to be the exclusive distributors of Dolium keg in the UK and Ireland.

Dolium is a plastic recyclable keg, developed by Belgium-based Dispack-Projects.

Microdat has formed a new company to distribute kegs, Dolium UK, which will run in conjunction with the current business.

Chief executive Dr Maitland Hyslop said: “The organic growth we have achieved recently, plus our success with and commitment to our partners Lehui and Dolium, means that we have outgrown our current site.

“The old site is no longer fit for purpose. The move is part of a planned growth strategy to upgrade, upskill and upscale Microdat Limited.”

Microdat has grown steadily in the UK since managing director Stephen Midgley led a management buyout from BI Industries plc in 2002.

The company has completed projects for brewers including Timothy Taylor of Keighley, Kirkstall Brewery, Ossett Brewery and Moorehouses Brewery of Burnley.

Microdat makes cask and keg packaging machinery.

It also makes washers, fillers, conveyers, palletisers and depalletisers.

The company has expanded into more general brewery equipment including pipework and pumps.

Microdat employs more than 70 staff, more than double the number in financial crisis-hit 2008 and four times as many than in 2002.

It trains apprentices and hires university graduates.

The company started exporting overseas two years ago to the US and Sweden.