STO-Flaconnage has invested several million pounds in a new UK-based furnace, which was fired up for the first time on 4 Jan following a 42-day construction. The 150-tonne furnace, which is situated at the firm's Knottingley site, will safeguard the jobs of about 300 staff employed at the plant for the next 12 years, according to sales director of perfumery & personal care Mark Devonald Smith who described the furnace's construction as "a logistical nightmare". He said: "All production had to be closed down & the opportunity was taken for incorporating that part of the factory into the site rebuild, which is currently being undertaken." Investment in the furnace was given the green light in June 2009, during a year when major investments in British manufacturing were thin on the ground.
