With demand for contract kitchens in the social housing market continuing to grow, Premiere Kitchens has invested in a major new HOMAG production package to increase capacity, improve efficiency and prepare the business for the demands of tomorrow. The installation of a SAWTEQ A-410, two EDGETEQ D-610s, FEEDTEQ L-500 and STACKTEQ G-500 has already delivered significant results, with edgebander productivity up by 60% and saw output increasing by 40%.
About Premiere Kitchens
Established in 1989, Premiere Kitchens has more than 35 years’ experience manufacturing and supplying high-quality contract kitchens to the social and affordable housing sector, as well as private developers.
The company currently supplies more than 100 Local Authorities and Housing Associations across England and Wales, with a strong focus on combining product quality with exceptional customer service. Premiere manufactures fully assembled rigid kitchen cabinets, offering lead times as short as 10 working days for planned kitchen programmes and five days for unoccupied properties and replacements.
Substantial investment in automation has become an important part of achieving these targets, allowing Premiere to increase productivity while maintaining consistency and high-quality standards.
Investing for the next stage of growth
Premiere had been operating two competitor beam saws alongside a 20-year-old four-sided HOMAG edgebander. While the edgebander had delivered excellent service over two decades, increasing production volumes were creating new demands on the factory.
“We were going out to market because our volume was growing, and there was a manual handling issue with our beam saws,” explains Andy Barham, Managing Director at Premiere Kitchens. “We were getting into some heavy volumes – roughly 200,000 cabinets a year. We needed something a bit more industrial.”
The company was therefore looking for a new four-sided edgebander as well as a higher-performance saw solution. Having never previously used an angular saw, Premiere set out to understand what the technology could offer.
“We knew angular saws were out there, but we’d never used one before, so we set out to find the right one, alongside a new four-sided edgebander.”
A partnership built on experience
Premiere’s previous experience with HOMAG played an important role in the decision-making process.
“Edgebanding is a science and we knew we would need to be very selective about our supplier. We’d had a great experience with our previous HOMAG edgebander, and once you’ve had that experience, the brand loyalty that comes with it is very hard for someone else to break. So we quite quickly settled on HOMAG for our next edgebander.
“For the saw, we explored various options. When it came to HOMAG’s SAWTEQ A-410, we scrutinised the technical data, especially the speed, because it sounded almost too good to be true. It turns out, they really are that fast. HOMAG is pretty much the Porsche of woodworking machinery.”
The eventual investment comprised the SAWTEQ A-410 alongside two EDGETEQ D-610 edgebanders, a FEEDTEQ L-500 and STACKTEQ G-500, creating a highly integrated production solution.
A seamless transition
Premiere worked closely with HOMAG to plan the transition in detail, with Nathan Pearce, Head of Operations, coordinating the project from the company’s side.
“HOMAG are extremely good at working in collaboration. Swapping out two beam saws and an edgebander for the new machinery was going to be no small feat, and yet, we hit the exact day in the plan of commissioning the new kit, which meant we kept downtime during the transition to a minimum.
“I’ve been around machines and operations all my life and I’ve never known an installation to be so precise. It was a brilliant joint venture between Nathan, with his knowledge of our business, and HOMAG, whose expertise and professionalism proved invaluable.”
Training was equally comprehensive, with Premiere’s team travelling to Germany before receiving further training once the machines had been commissioned on site.
“From a user resistance point of view, to go from something that’s 20+ years old to a modern day machine could have been potentially very challenging. It’s like going from a Nokia brick to an iPhone 17. But full credit to HOMAG, they’ve got a great onboarding process of not only giving you the kit, but also understanding the user resistance and addressing it with first-rate training.”
A 60% increase in productivity
After just two months in production, Premiere carried out its first detailed productivity analysis – and the results were already significant.
“We’re currently outputting 60% more product from the edgebander per hour, and 40% more from the saw,” says Andy. “And this has been during the summer when we have operators on holiday, etc. This will only go up as we become more familiar with the machinery.”
The improvements are not attributable to speed alone. Increased uptime and consistently high-quality output have also contributed to the overall productivity gains.
“We’ve increased our productivity in three ways: we have more uptime, when they’re up they work faster, and there are no rejections because the quality is so consistent.”
Turning waste into energy
The investment has also helped Premiere integrate its waste handling with its existing biomass system. A muncher and takeaway system behind the saw automatically processes wood waste and transfers it directly to the biomass system, eliminating the need to manually empty skips and bins.
“It’s a brilliant addition that helps us to minimise landfill and keep our carbon footprint as low as possible whilst making better use of a production by-product. We’re highly committed to sustainability, and it’s a lot easier to hit our targets now with the integration of HOMAG’s technology.”
Meeting the demands of the sector
For Premiere, the investment is ultimately about meeting the growing demands of the social housing sector. As Andy explains:
“We operate in a market where demand for social housing refurbishment kitchens continues to outpace supply. With this investment, we’re ensuring that we have the capacity to help keep housing projects afloat. That’s going down very well with our customers at a time when many kitchen suppliers are falling by the wayside. It’s really nice to be able to sit in front of a customer and say yes, we can supply what you need.”
Andy concludes with acknowledgement of the HOMAG team who have been pivotal in the success of the investment: “Simon Durant, our Area Sales Manager, has been brilliant. As have the guys over in Germany. Everyone at HOMAG is great to deal with. They’re a fantastic partner to have and we will certainly be in talks with them when we look to invest in more machinery in the future.”
For more information or a demonstration of HOMAG machinery and software, contact HOMAG UK on 01332 856500, dialling option 4 for the sales department, or email [email protected].
