When a pipe is a panel: Asset wins award for rectangular HDPE system

A Wales-based manufacturer of large diameter plastic pipes has won the ‘Manufacturing Innovation Award’ for its latest product designed for the water management industry.

Asset International, based in Newport, which produces Weholite large diameter plastic pipes, was recognised at the 2015 Made in Wales Awards for the development of its new ‘Weholite Modular’ product, which has adapted the company’s tubular products into a modular design.

Unlike its cylindrical sister products, Weholite Modular offers clients the company’s trademark Weholite HDPE system as flat panels, which can be used to construct CSO control chambers, pumping stations, flow control chambers, ventilation chambers, detention tanks and other water management products.

In its first year on the market the Weholite Modular product has generated an extra £1 million in turnover for the company, which is projected to double next year, and treble into year three.

Asset says the product has opened up the Weholite brand to a whole new sector of the marketplace that was previously inaccessible to it, as well as working successfully across the various sectors within the construction industry, including the water industry’s asset management programme (AMP), housing sector, marine projects and the renewable energy market.

“Traditionally our Weholite pipe products formed the core of our business strategy, but there were always occasions in the water management industry where rectangular chambers were necessary. Previously these have been constructed using reinforced concrete, but many water authorities are now encouraging the use of bespoke modular chambers for speed of completion and ecological reasons,” explained Simon Thomas, Managing Director of Asset International.

“Hence Weholite Modular was born in order to provide our clients with an even broader portfolio of water management solutions,” he added.

Recent and ongoing projects that Asset International is involved with include the landmark Shell Corrib Mayo natural gas project, which is estimated to harvest a massive 5,940 billion cubic feet of natural gas and a multi-million pound project to help improve London’s antiquated Victorian sewage networks.

In Wales, Asset International has provided a sewer diversion pipeline for the new retail development, Friars Walk, in Newport city centre, which is set to open next month