Warringtonfire to open UK’s largest testing facility

Warringtonfire, a global leader in Fire Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC), has announced plans to open a new facility in Warrington, UK.

Construction of the new 101,000ft2 facility has begun and is expected to be completed in 2025 with a total investment of around £23.75 million. Creating 50 new jobs, the new facility will be the largest in the UK and provide fire testing, technical and certification services.

According to Warringtonfire, customer demands for product testing are set to continue to grow significantly, due to increasing regulatory requirements, the introduction of additional standards, the rising importance of third-party certification and product assurance as well as the need for shorter testing lead times.

The new facility will be designed to meet this increased demand; it will represent an almost 80% increase in size over its existing facility in the region and is expected to triple Warringtonfire’s testing capacity in the medium term.

It is being built at Birchwood Park near Warrington, and will add unique capabilities. This will include eight state-of-the-art fire resistance testing furnaces, comprising three horizontal and three vertical furnaces (designed to evaluate the fire performance of different products or assemblies built either horizontally or vertically), and two indicative furnaces (which provide a very focused testing method to quantify the ability of a material or assembly to withstand exposure to high temperatures).

The new facility will also provide larger preparation areas to improve workflow as well as higher quality and more accessible customer reception and viewing areas.

In line with the commitment to be more sustainable, it will implement extensive measures to reduce energy use, maintain air quality and potential environmental impacts, including built-in recycling systems, energy-efficient fans, plus smoke and odour capture and treatment.

Warringtonfire says it will create over 50 new jobs in the Warrington region, with a commitment to training and upskilling new and existing employees. The 200 strong team will be one of the world’s largest teams of fire technical experts.

Warringtonfire’s existing facility will continue to operate at full capacity while the new facility is under construction. Following the transfer of fire resistance testing to Birchwood Park, part of the existing facility will be used to create a centre of excellence for reaction to fire testing, which are smaller scale tests including spread of flame and heat release.