With the commissioning of a second, additional factory in Blackburn, the Thompsons Group now has five tipper bodybuilding plants in the UK, easily confirming the company as the UK market leader for all things tippers.

A purpose-designed, new-build facility, ‘Blackburn 2’ is another example of the extraordinary achievements made by Thompsons in the last few years.

The decision to go for a further increase in production capacity was made last summer, and reflects Thompsons continuing optimism not just for the overall prospects for the UK construction industry, but also the ever higher demand for Thompsons bodies to work within it.

Representing an investment of approximately £1.5m, the new facility covers over 25,000 sq.ft in an area of 1.2 acres. Up to 100 truck chassis can also be accommodated on the fully concreted site.

"Ever since Thompsons opened its first Blackburn factory in 2000, we’ve run virtually flat out,” says Group Sales Director Scott Burton, who adds that "of particular importance, Blackburn has given us a local presence right in the heart of northern industry. Being in Blackburn has hugely expanded our national customer base, and with our second factory we can continue to improve our market position.”

With large scale, on-going construction work a steady feature of many northern city skylines, Thompsons is now seeing the London Olympics as the next huge spur for the tipping industry.

With its Croydon factories perfectly located to meet this greatly increased demand for tippers in the South East, Thompsons pair of Blackburn plants will become ever more important in catering for tipper operators requirements right across the UK. Of particular significance, ‘Blackburn 2’ also allows Thompsons the added opportunity to further develop its product range.

"The days when we just did conventional tippers is now long gone” says Group Sales Manager Simon Shields. "In conjunction with Charlton - which has the Group’s fifth factory in Dover - Thompsons can build everything from 3.5 tonnes gvw cage tippers for the local council right through to bespoke machinery carriers and snowploughs.

And precisely by being able to offer such a product range, companies such as major utility businesses and rental operators can now give us large orders covering many different types of vehicles.”

With close to 20 extra staff being taken on to run the new factory, ‘Blackburn 2’ is providing some welcome opportunities to a local Lancashire workforce already well skilled in tipper bodybuilding.