EGGER Hexham open days prove to be big success with over 1400 visitors

Last month saw over 1400 people attend two open days at EGGER Hexham, Northumberland’s largest manufacturing employer and leading wood-based materials manufacturer.

The family-friendly open days were held over the course of one weekend (September 15th-16th) to allow visitors the opportunity to find out more about its operations.

A behind-the-scenes walking tour of the factory was offered to visitors, demonstrating what exactly goes on at the chipboard site. The event also offered a variety of child-friendly activities, including a harvesting simulator to understand more about working in the forest, as well as face painting, a raffle, live music, food, drink and more.

Tobias Zimmermann, plant director technical/production, EGGER Hexham, comments: “EGGER knows how important it is to continue to build strong relationships with the local community and this was the perfect opportunity for us to do this. Overall, the event was hugely popular with our Sunday event reaching capacity. There were so many positive comments and it was clear that our visitors really enjoyed it. We would love to have had even more people on the day, but this is a working factory and the safety of everyone on site is always our top priority.”

Mark Hayton, director of Timberpak Ltd, said: “EGGER takes its environmental and sustainability responsibilities seriously and that’s why Timberpak was set up – to source waste wood as a part of EGGER’s manufacturing process. The Open Day weekend was a brilliant opportunity to show the local community the EGGER ‘Eco Cycle’, how Timberpak fits into it and why recycled material is so important.”

At the Hexham site, the chipboard is further upgraded (Melamine Faced Chipboard (MFC)) into products for the furniture and interior design markets and tongue and groove flooring for the building market. In 30-plus years of manufacturing in the UK, EGGER has created 8.5 million tonnes of EGGER chipboard. 

EGGER’s products are used throughout everyday life and feature in a range of applications which are used in kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, caravans, offices, hotels, student accommodation, shops and structural flooring in the house-building industry. Typically, two out of every three kitchens in the UK have EGGER products in them.

John Paterson, director of EGGER Forestry, concludes: “It was fantastic to see so many people interested in learning about responsible forestry management, something we are truly passionate about, at the open day weekend. The forestry harvesting demonstrations provided an opportunity for people to safely see what is involved in our forestry operations. The harvesting simulator also provided a fun and interactive way for families to really understand what it’s like to work in the forest. A big thank you goes to John Deere who supplied and showcased the forestry machinery at the weekend.”