Production hots up in the cold as factory keeps world on the move

Jan 7 2010 by Christopher Knox, The Journal

WHILE most businesses are struggling to cope with the recent cold snap, one company has welcomed the near arctic conditions. Christopher Knox takes a look at de-icing company Kilfrost and discovers a business that has roots tracing back to St James’ Park.

NORTHUMBERLAND-based Kilfrost is one company that hasn’t been left out in the cold by either the chill of recession or the current blizzards, with sales expected to be 20% up on the £50m it made in its last financial year.

The firm, which employs 60 staff in the North East and a further 50 worldwide, is responsible for the manufacture of much of the world’s aircraft wing de-icers, which accounts for 75% of its sales, and provides its products to countries around the globe.

Near arctic conditions in the UK, as well as in much of Europe and East Asia, have seen production go into overdrive at the firm’s plant in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, with workers having to give up much of their Christmas holidays in order to help meet demand.

Unprecedented demand saw the plant double the production of de-icer to £8m in December, compared to the same month in 2008. Such hectic trading is a far cry from the company’s roots.

Whitley Bay chemist Joseph Halbert set up the business in the 1930s to provide an adhesive material that could stick up large posters at St James’ Park.

Nicknamed ‘Tiny’, apparently because of ‘his larger-than-life personality’, he soon developed his product into a de-icer which could be used to clear the pitch before kick-off during the winter months.

He then turned his attention to aircraft de-icing and launched a Defrosting Composite which the UK Royal Air Force trialled on the Sunderland Flying Boats of Imperial Airways.

The success of the company’s Lofreeze paste, used to prevent ice build-up in cold chambers, allowed Kilfrost to invest in more research and better equipment and enabled the development of a de-icing fluid for use across the whole British Rail network in 1938.