Airea: Yorkshire firm hopes for year of ‘serenity and harvest’ as revitalised factory set to open
Yorkshire-based specialist flooring firm Airea has said it now hopes for a year of “serenity and harvest” in 2026, as the company prepares to launch its revitalised manufacturing facility at the start of next year.
Airea posted a pre-tax loss of £0.44m for the six months ending 30 June, an improvement on losses of £0.68m during the same period last year. But the firm said it is now confident of a return to profit, as a major investment in its West Yorkshire manufacturing site looks set to complete later this year.
Located in Ossett, the company’s manufacturing facility currently employs around 100 people.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Médéric Payne, chief executive officer of Airea said the firm had seen challenges around running its current facility while developing a new one at the same site.
He said: "There's sometimes a frustration of having to run a business and do well commercially while making changes, as well as running an old machine while you’re building a new one.
“We did announce this year would be quite a transformational year, so we're looking at 2026 as a year of serenity and harvest.
“A lot of the work we’ve done over the last two years is coming through in our sales, we are taking market share off a number of our big competitors, building up a David and Goliath story.”
The firm’s improvements in its Yorkshire facility have cost around £0.8m. The move will see Airea deploy artificial intelligence imagery and inspection technology at the site.
The company said the facility is now expected to be fully operational by the end of the year, and commercially operating in January when the site re-opens from its Christmas shut-down.
Mr Payne said the changes could see some staff redeployed into different roles, but that the company did not expect any job reductions from the move.
Conleth Campbell, chief financial officer at Airea, added that the firm had been building a “platform for growth” over recent months.
He said: “Over the course of the last 12 to 18 months we’ve been incurring costs, and putting a platform for growth in place. Some of those costs will disappear by the end of the year, so we’re absolutely confident we’ll get back into profitability.
“The new facility will also create efficiencies, including less waste, more energy efficiency. That means we can start to stretch the margin. So we’re very confident.” Mr Payne added that the company was also concerned about the impact of the upcoming Autumn Budget, set to be announced at the end of November.
He said: “We’re looking to see what Rachel Reeves is going to put in the Budget. Obviously we are worried that could have an impact on our level of investment we could put into the business. And that's the sense we’re getting talking to our suppliers and customers, there's a lot of holding our breath to see what comes out of the Budget.”
It comes as Airea is also looking to grow its business abroad from its base in the Middle East. At the start of this year, the firm announced it had opened a new showroom in Dubai. Mr Payne said this site had now been used to conduct business in other regions.
Airea also posted a 5.8 per cent increase in revenue to £9.82m for the first half of the year, and EBITDA of £0.667m, up from £0.622m.
The firm also incurred costs due to its pension scheme, which is currently in deficit, but added that a recovery plan to address the deficit had now been formally approved by The Pensions Regulator.