UK farm machinery manufacturer, Claydon, is to expand its operations to meet expected rapid growth in global demand for its minimum tillage machinery.

With help from Local Enterprise grant, it means the family owned business can keep up with record demand for its innovative Claydon Opti-Till crop establishment machinery by modernising its factory in West Suffolk.

The completion of a new purpose-built building at its site in Wickhambrook will more than double production capacity and create numerous additional jobs, it said recently.

Supported by a £267,400 Growing Business Fund Grant from the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (NALEP), the project will help the 40-year-old company to meet an exponential increase in orders. These are expected to grow further in 2023 as the business works with its dealer and distributor partners in existing and new markets to develop sales of its Evolution and Hybrid drills, straw harrows, TerraStar light cultivators and TerraBlade inter-row hoes.

“Unlike many other companies in the UK farm machinery sector which import machinery made overseas, we design, test and manufacture all our products from scratch, employ local staff and benefit the UK businesses which supply us,” said its chief executive officer and founder, Jeff Claydon.

An arable farmer, he started up in 1981 to manufacture the Claydon Yield-o-Meter, the first device to provide an accurate ‘real-time’ reading of crop yields on a display in the cab of a combine harvester.

In 2001, when grain prices fell to levels which made combinable crop production uneconomic using traditional establishment methods, he went on to developed the Opti-Till direct strip seeding system.

Using this, farmers can save up to £250 per ha on establishment costs across a wide range of soil types and conditions using Opti-Till.

Sales of its direct strip seeding technology have grown 10-fold since 2010, but with some markets still at an early stage of acceptance of min-till, the company expects sales to grow exponentially during 2023.

Like many other UK companies, Claydon is having to deal with the ongoing adverse effects of Brexit, which has made transporting its products to Europe considerably more difficult, time consuming and expensive.

“Despite huge uncertainties caused by Brexit and Covid-19, in July 2021 we decided to go ahead with this new building to mark the company’s 40th anniversary," said Jeff.

"Claydon staff completed the footings in the winter of 2021 and construction started in summer 2022. The project was managed in-house but, due to difficulties in obtaining contractors and materials, progress was slower than anticipated.”

Jeff’s sons, Spencer and Oliver, added: “This significant investment we have made in these new production facilities will help us to take a quantum leap forward to meet demand for Claydon products and is a key part of our long-term plan to develop the potential which exists all over the world.”