BMI UK & Ireland has completed a £6.3m refurbishment of its Coventry-based Redland clay tile plant and kiln, restarting production after five months of planned maintenance and giving specifiers and housebuilders continued domestic supply of one of the UK's best-known clay roof tile ranges at a time when energy costs and ageing kiln infrastructure threaten output across the sector.

The refurbishment modernised the site's Rosemary kiln and production processes, required more than 33,000 contact hours, and included upgrades to automation, product handling, gas and control equipment, along with a repainted kiln entrance fitted with upgraded hydraulics.

BMI UK & Ireland is part of BMI Group, Europe's largest roofing and waterproofing manufacturer, itself owned by privately held US group Standard Industries; the Coventry plant has produced BMI Redland's Rosemary clay roof tile since 1989.

Damien Pooley, portfolio manager, pitched roofing, at BMI UK & Ireland, said the refurbishment was a genuine team effort, with colleagues across the plant applying their day-to-day understanding of kiln operations to improve efficiency, and that the company remains committed to UK manufacturing and the Rosemary tile range.

The refurbishment reflects a wider pattern among UK heavy clay manufacturers of modernising ageing kiln infrastructure rather than closing capacity, even as energy costs and decarbonisation pressure squeeze margins across brick and tile production.

The UK brick and tile manufacturing sector generates around £1.3 billion in annual revenue across 241 businesses, while the global clay roofing tiles market is forecast to grow at roughly 3.2 per cent a year to 2035 on renovation and heritage-building demand, with rising energy prices cited by manufacturers as a growing constraint on kiln-firing costs across the industry.

The investment also sits alongside a broader shift in the sector towards decarbonising kiln operations, illustrated by Wienerberger's parallel construction of a fully electric tunnel kiln in East Yorkshire; BMI's gas-fired refurbishment shows UK producers are still choosing to modernise existing sites rather than offshore production.

For the sector, the message is that maintaining and modernising existing UK kiln capacity remains commercially viable even as energy costs rise, protecting jobs and specification-critical domestic supply for heritage and premium housing projects.

Source: The Manufacturer / IBISWorld / IndexBox / World Construction Today