SEPTEMBER 2019 COVER STORY
17
SALT OF
THE EARTH
Balancing aging assets in a 50-year-old site with
increasing customer demand and a volatile market
required the team at British Salt’s Cheshire factory
take some bold steps to modernise
BY CHRIS BECK
www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
A model of a Jaguar E-Type sits on
the desk of Stephen Crabb, head of
operations at British Salt’s factory in
Middlewich, Cheshire. Given to him
on the day he started, it came with a
promise that he would soon work out
the significance of why it came into his custody.
It didn’t take him long: “On the surface, the car
looks fantastic and it can still top 100mph without
breaking a sweat,” he explains. “Underneath,
though, it’s rusted and will need constant
maintenance to keep it running. The plant is
much the same – our products are world-class,
but our assets need replacing. Basically, working
here is like driving an E-Type Jaguar every day!”
Crabb (pictured, below right) has been at
the wheel at Middlewich since December 2016,
the latest in a line of industrialists tasked with
optimising the production of a commodity most
of us take for granted – salt.
Salt has been extracted from underneath
the Cheshire countryside, in one form or
another, since at least Roman times. The current
factory, however, which this year celebrates
50 years of operation, has taken production to
an unprecedented level: last year, it made over
400,000 tonnes of salt – over 1,000 tonnes per day.
The trouble is, like most commodities, salt
manufacture is extremely volatile. “The market
doesn’t appreciate the amount of effort that is
needed to produce that quantity of salt, instead
preferring to push the prices down,” says Crabb.
“This means we need to find ways to mitigate
against that, starting with the manufacturing
process. If we can make that cheaper, or find a
niche product, then we have a way forward.”
This has led to a two-pronged improvement
strategy at the site, spearheaded by British
Salt’s Indian owners, Tata Chemicals.
“The investment has come in two
forms,” continues Crabb.
“Sustenance, which provides
reliability and sustainability;
and continuous improvement:
finding ways to differentiate
what we do. We have an
ambitious growth strategy, but
we have to ensure we’re able
to meet it. That’ll be hard with
the current assets, so some
investment has been vital.”
Investing for the future
Understandably as a 50-yearold
site, Middlewich is showing
its age – not least because,
unlike most other factories,
this one is being eaten away
by the very product it makes.
The walkways around the
massive tanks that separate
the brine solution (see box
on p19 to learn more about
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