Design

Allied Glass, the glass container manufacturer, has invested £4.5m in a gas-powered, energy-efficient furnace at its Leeds plant.

The firm claims the furnace, which has a melting capacity of 265 tonnes per day, will be one of the UK glass industry’s most energy efficient. It replaces a 10-year-old furnace, which had melted more than 800,000 tonnes of glass, producing around 1.5 billion bottles.

The expenditure concludes the first part of a £10m investment programme at Leeds.

The news comes just two months after rival Rockware Glass closed one of its furnaces in Barnsley, blaming overcapacity compounded by the opening of the Quinn Glass factory in Cheshire.

Andrew Spencer, chief executive of Allied Glass, would not comment on ‘the Quinn effect’ but said: “We are busy and our aim is to continually improve product quality and efficiency, while at the same time increasing our product capability in specialist shapes and sizes.”