Somerset manufacturing company Nonwovenn has announced it is aiming to hit revenues of £50m by next year.
Nonwovenn specialises in creating technical fabrics that are widely used across the medical, industrial, packaging, and protective clothing sectors at its Bridgwater base.
Chairman David Lamb explained: “We are projected to exceed £40m in turnover for 2023, hopefully £46m through this new year and £52m for 2025. 17 years out of 20, Nonwovenn has been growing revenue and profits – two of the three years were during Covid.”
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Nonwovenn employs 205 staff in the south-west and with new manufacturing capacity coming on stream, it expects to have 225 workers based in the region this year.
Currently the textile manufacturer is best known for its ‘anti-bleeding’ fabric called Chitosan that has been helping to save thousands of lives in Ukraine. Chitosan is extracted from shrimp shells and then purified. When it comes into contact with blood it swells into a gel to make a clot.
Mr Lamb added: “There they are saving countless lives because the shrimp shell extract which they are coated with can stop even severe bleeding within 60 seconds.”
The chairman has told BusinessLive that the company is currently focusing on new safety units for firefighters.
He explained: “It is not just masks which are important to stopping them inhaling fumes - deadly toxins from fires also get absorbed through the skin - our material aims to minimise that risk.”
In addition, he touched on the growth of the businesses and how demand for oral nicotine products is “growing very fast”.
Mr Lamb said: “Ex-smokers love them because there is nothing that is inhaled - so it is obviously no longer creating damage to their lungs. These products can also be used in enclosed settings where both smoking and vaping are frowned upon - e.g. at work and with the family.
“The global sector is already worth several billion a year. When the oral nicotine trend started, around 2018, Nonwovenn had 15% global market share for the pouch fabric. Today, in a much bigger market, we supply around 30% of global demand.”
Nonwovenn came into business 20 years ago after taking over a struggling Bridgwater business called Bonded Fibre Fabrics, which had fallen into receivership.
Mr Lamb said that through “a lot of hard work” the business has been transformed into a fast-moving producer of high-tech fabric for top brands globally.
He added: “Our business is about eliminating threats to everyday life. Products like the fume-filtering masks we produce for Deliveroo cyclists and Samsung mobile phone workers keep their lungs safe.”
