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It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Dutch know a thing or two about land drainage. After all, a quarter of the country is below sea level, and only about half of it is more than a metre above.

Manufacturers of drainage products therefore do quite well in the Netherlands. One of the most successful is Kijlstra, a leading supplier of precast pipes, manholes, penstocks and related components. Kijlstra鈥檚 a big name over there; here in the UK, however, not only is the name unfamiliar (and unpronounceable) to many engineers and designers but its products seem alien and exotic.

The UK has a well-established market for precast concrete drainage products and about three equally well-established suppliers satisfying demand. Like many niche sectors of the construction industry, the precast concrete drainage business is a very conservative one. Nevertheless, Kijlstra decided to dip its toe into UK waters in 2009 and, lured over here by the promise of potentially big orders related to the 2012 Olympic development, set up a UK office near Alderminster, Warwickshire. It was successful. The Olympic project was conceived very much as a showcase for innovation and Kijlstra (pronounced "Kellstra", by the way) had something very outr茅 to offer: square manholes.

Traditionally, British manholes are round 鈥� that鈥檚 just the way it is. So when Kijlstra came along with its square designs, the market recoiled in horror 鈥� or at least appeared to.

Hugo de Waal, Kijlstra鈥檚 UK manager, explains: 鈥淭here was some resistance 鈥� but not from the market,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he resistance came mainly from the standards committee.鈥� Coincidentally, perhaps, established UK manufacturers are well represented on the British Standards committee for concrete drainage products.

The advantages of Kijlstra鈥檚 square manholes, with their modular design, flexible cast-in connections and ease of installation, was enough to convince a few enlightened clients in the water industry, says de Waal. 鈥淭he Olympic team broke the mould with the square manhole,鈥� he says. Sales, led by UK commercial director Dai Williams, started to pick up on the strength of this. Williams says growth in the UK has accelerated since the start of the economic recovery. 鈥淲e have doubled our turnover in the UK every year since we entered the market,鈥� he says. And 2014 brought a big breakthrough: 鈥淭he new British Standard, published last year, fully describes our system as well as the existing ones鈥�.

With growth forecast to continue, Kijlstra decided early last year that it needed to start manufacturing in the UK so that it could deliver quickly and economically to British customers. Finding a suitable site was not as difficult as one might have expected. In 2011, during the lead-up to the major upheaval that saw French firm Lafarge merge with Anglo- American, the latter鈥檚 Tarmac Building Products subsidiary decided to close its four precast concrete factories.

One of these, at Henlade near Taunton, Somerset, attracted the attention of Kijlstra and a deal with owner Lafarge Tarmac was signed late last year. For the impatient de Waal, the negotiations seemed drawn-out and laborious: 鈥淜ijlstra is a family-owned business and we tend to make decisions quickly. When you鈥檙e dealing with a big multi-national things seem to move so slowly鈥�.

Kijlstra signed a five-year lease on the 8,000m2 Henlade factory and moved in at the end of November. After almost four years of neglect, the first thing the new occupier had to do was hack through the brambles and buddleia bushes that had enveloped the office building. 鈥淵ou literally couldn鈥檛 get to the front door,鈥� says Williams.

Come January, and with production scheduled to begin within weeks, the office building was at last accessible and in the process of being redecorated. The factory, though, was an empty cavern. This is not a problem, says de Waal. Kijlstra needs only to install its moulds on the factory floor and, with nine big Demag overhead cranes to handle them, nothing more is required.

Concrete for the factory is being supplied by an existing batching plant located across the yard. This is still owned and operated by Lafarge, says de Waal, 鈥渂ut there鈥檚 a very limited demand for readymix in this area, so we鈥檙e going to be their main customer鈥�. The 29-acre site is also home to an asphalt plant - again, owned and operated by Lafarge Tarmac.

The factory, which used to manufacture pipes and prestressed concrete floor beams, will now produce Kijlstra鈥檚 full range of manholes and its successful Vario panel system, which is used to create holding tanks, attenuation tanks and similar vessels.

The only Kijlstra product it will not be making is concrete pipes. This, says de Waal, is because the company is just launching an entirely new range of pipe which it calls Blue Tube and for which it has just built a new factory in the Netherlands.

Tooling up to produce the Blue Tube at Henlade makes no sense at this early stage says de Waal, although he admits the lack of a pipe range to go with the manholes puts Kijlstra at a slight disadvantage.

As Williams explains, Kijlstra currently does not supply concrete pipe to the UK, although it has a range of plastic twin-wall pipes compatible with its concrete products. 鈥淚f the client can use plastic pipe, we can supply it in diameters up to 600mm,鈥� says Williams. 鈥淭he problem is that it is very rare for a specifier to split an order, and many suppliers will refuse to price for just manholes or just pipes.鈥�

Though the square manhole was the product that established Kijlstra in the UK, it is now the Vario that sets the company apart. This modular panel system has been used by several water companies to create large 鈥� sometime huge 鈥� attenuation tanks and associated chambers and vessels.

A landmark project was the supply of a 7,200m3 capacity sewage sludge holding tank to NMC Nomenca for Severn Trent Water鈥檚 拢2.8m tertiary treatment works at Crankley Point in Newark, Nottinghamshire, a couple of years ago.

This 60m x 20m x 6m tank was delivered to site and installed in a fraction of the time it would have taken to erect the formwork and pour a traditional in-situ structure, says Williams. The company currently has a number of significant supply contracts with major infrastructure projects. These include the supply of more than 800 manholes to Carillion/Morgan Sindall joint venture for the A1/M extension, a contract worth about 拢1m.

Another current job is for contractor Costain on the Heysham Bypass where more than 350 manholes are needed. In the water sector, Kijlstra is supplying its biggest holding tank so far to the KMI joint venture (comprising Kier, Interserve and Murphy) for installation at a United Utilities treatment works in Liverpool. Around half of the panels for this tank (which will measure 150m in length and will be 50m wide and 3.5m deep) have already been manufactured in the Netherlands. The rest of the components will be made at Henlade.

Kijlstra is investing around 拢5m in the new factory and is set to receive up to 拢40,000 local authority funding from Taunton Deane Council - described rather sourly by a Taxpayers鈥� Alliance spokesman as a 鈥渂ribe鈥�. In return for this purported backhander, Kijlstra will breathe new life into a moribund factory and will have created almost 50 jobs by the end of the year. By then, de Waal expects Henlade to be operating at 60-70% of full capacity. Several major projects are currently being negotiated and both de Waal and Williams are upbeat about the prospects of new work.

One project they must have their eyes on is the work about to start on the site of the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station 鈥� it is, after all, only 18 miles away from Henlade. Location-wise the factory is well-positioned, not just for Hinkley Point. Only a mile from junction 25 of the M5, it affords easy access to the Midlands and the North as well as to London and the South East via the M4 corridor. As you might expect, Kijlstra is making very upbeat noises about its UK prospects, although it has no illusions about the challenge ahead. 鈥淚n terms of market share, we鈥檙e probably about number four out of four manufacturers,鈥� says Williams.

He believes that among many main contractors there鈥檚 a 鈥楿K plc mentality鈥�: 鈥淚t鈥檚 often quite clear that they want a UK solution. Well, now we are a UK manufacturer. This changes the dynamics for us in the UK,鈥� he says. De Waal also thinks that Kijlstra鈥檚 modern modular precast products are the perfect solution to what the utility companies are demanding of their supply chain. 鈥淐lients are keen on off-site but the supply chain is resistant,鈥� he says. However, client pressure is mounting.

鈥淔or example, a contractor will price a job using in-situ methods鈥� and the client will say 鈥榳e like your price, but we want it done faster鈥� and they know off-site is faster. I think we are going to see a seismic shift driven by the utility companies.鈥�

This article first appeared in the February聽2015聽issue of聽海角社区app聽magazine. To read the full magazine online,

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