“Our major customers want to see shorter and more agile supply chains,” TR Fastenings managing director for Europe Andrew Nuttall said in the announcement of adding plant capacity in Italy.

TR Viterie Italia Centrale, a part of the Trifast plc group, has expanded manufacturing capacity at its central Italy plant.

TR VIC has experienced strong demand fueled by the increase in consumer-driven home improvements during Covid that shows no signs of abating.  

The 33% capacity increase is mostly due to new machinery sourced from Italian manufacturers. It builds on a 2021 addition of multi-station cold forming machinery, which allows 500 million pieces annual production increase.

The site is ‘Industry 4.0 compliant,’ creating a greener and more efficient workspace, to be completed in two phases in 2022 and 2023.  

“The order book has increased dramatically over the past two years,” stated Nuttall. “As more people work from home, they are investing in their domestic appliances and not spending so much on holidays etc and instead enhancing their home environment.”

“The lead times out of Asia have increased significantly during Covid and freight costs and container issues has meant that we had to react and onshore more product. This investment strategy allows us to better meet our customer needs, now and for the future.”

The site in Italy was operating at 130% of capacity putting a strain on the workforce to meet customers’ demands, TR VIC managing director Stefano Pisoni said. “We are now embarking on the first steps, not only to future-proof our group against supply chain disruption, but also to ensure we continue to meet the demands of our customers.”

“This move has come directly from customers telling us they want us to manufacture in Europe, nearer to market, and avoiding the supply chain challenges that have been hampering the sector,” Trifast global projects director Glenda Roberts said. “Major brands want this. This will become a growing part of the TR strategy future proofing against supply chain disruption and investing in the European manufacturing economy.”

The TR VIC site serves 24 countries and has capacity to serve more health & home and light & heavy vehicle sectors.  Web: trfastenings.com

Established in 1973, TR Fastenings is the trading business of Trifast plc, a global specialist in the design, engineering, manufacture and distribution of industrial fastenings and assembly products primarily for the automotive, electronic and technology, domestic appliance, distributors and industrial sectors. Branded products include rivet bushes, self-clinch fasteners, screws for plastic, blind rivet nuts, self-locking nuts, security fasteners, plastic fasteners, cable management products and enclosure hardware.

TR has operations in the UK, Europe, Asia and in Texas, Carolinas and Kentucky in the U.S.