DoorCo is a name synonymous with product innovation and development and prides itself as a supplier that doesn’t stand still. That same enthusiasm is true when it comes to internal processes and procedures, including the significant investment into the company’s Doncaster facility, as Mark Towers, strategy director, explains.
Purchased back in 2023, the expansive facility in Thorne, Doncaster offers an extra 80,000ft2 of space to support our manufacturing home in Macclesfield, allowing us greater control over the future of the business.
Since the purchase of the 3.2-acre site, we have been working towards building a hub for innovation, manufacturing and storage. Those plans are now coming to fruition ready for 2026, as we have completed the transition to our new goods-in storage facility that houses composite doors from Korea, Indonesia and Flip cassettes.
Manufacturing in Doncaster
The first part of the Doncaster renovation was focused on supporting our manufacturing capabilities and creating a home for Britdor, our solid door offering available in 44mm and 48mm options.
This area, which covers around 25,000ft2 has seen over £1m investment over the last 20 months in the building itself and machinery.
Next, we invested in an automated volume staining solution that meets the quality demands of our customers by delivering a more consistent colour match across our range of door designs, including Flip cassettes. With this machinery investment, we are also able to enhance the colour matching of cassettes with the Britdor colour range.
We then turned our attention to the foaming lines for Flip, an investment which has allowed us to grow our cassette sales, resulting in over 750,000 cassettes sold this year, making Flip the market-leading door glazing cassette system.
The size and scale of Doncaster has not only enabled us to expand the space we have to pre-foam Flip, it has also allowed us to introduce a second shift for higher production levels.
Storage space for more doors
When we acquired the Doncaster site, part of the building was rented out. Those tenants have now vacated the site at the end of their lease and we’ve been able to renovate the space to create the new goods inward holding facility for the doors, from where we are picking and loading doors and shipping them to DoorCo Macclesfield on a daily basis to ensure stocks are regularly replenished.
We have also converted one of the other buildings, installing 700+ racking locations to hold all our Flip cassette stock.
Growing team
Naturally, as the Doncaster project has evolved, we’ve been growing the team there to manage the operations on a day-to-day basis. Chris Shooten has joined us as warehouse manager and is overseeing both the transition and long-term supply support for the Macclesfield facilities. Chris’s focus is on three key areas: Health & safety, quality and efficiency.
Ryan Rafferty, who was promoted to the manufacturing manager role, will be integral going forwards too. Ryan will continue to monitor and grow the volumes of Britdor, Flip and stained doors, whilst continuing to ensure quality and safety are paramount on site.
Home of innovation
While we have been busy renovating the space and expanding the support service operations for Macclesfield, we’ve haven’t lost sight of DoorCo Thorne being our innovation hub. As well as the Doncaster site now being our main goods-in warehouse and component manufacturing facility, we’re also working on the next generation door for the UK market.
Innovation is central to DoorCo and we will continue to develop and evolve our offering to provide our customers with new products and services that keep winning them business.
We are excited for 2026, as we’re kicking it off in a strong position, founded on planned capacity across the business, that gives our customers the very best that DoorCo has to offer.
