Aberdeenshire timber frame firm creating factory with pioneering green credentials, boosted by six-figure funding

An Aberdeenshire timber frame specialist is creating a £4 million eco-friendly factory that will create and safeguard several jobs, and which it says will be the first facility of its kind in the UK.

NorFrame, based in Foveran, says the factory will be powered exclusively by renewable energy, and manufacture timber kit frames for homes, schools and commercial buildings using power generated from an on-site anaerobic digestion plant fuelled by silage from a neighbouring farm.

The site is set to span 31,000 square feet and complete in the spring, and will initially create 11 jobs and safeguard a further 14 in a rural area, produce 20 timber kits per week, and be able to meet demand from Scotland’s private and public sectors. Additionally, Scottish Enterprise is providing NorFrame with £750,000 from the Low Carbon Manufacturing Challenge Fund – the first grant awarded through the fund.

Gregor Davidson of NorFrame said: “Our goal was to solve a carbon footprint problem that would provide 100 per cent assurance that a timber manufacturing process can be clean, green, and cost-effective. The idea of combining the neighbouring anaerobic digestion plant and our own homegrown plant silage from a farm four miles away, with a two-zone heat capturing design came after months of testing and reworking our plans. It was a eureka moment."

The facility, which is set to be ready in the spring, will span 31,000 sq ft, and initially create 11 new jobs as well as safeguarding a further 14. Picture: contributed.

Rhona Allison, MD of business growth at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Identifying, combining, and harnessing the carbon-reducing technologies at its fingertips will see NorFrame take a truly circular approach to timber kit manufacturing that eliminates any use of fossil fuels. It’s exactly the kind of innovative thinking that the [Low Carbon Manufacturing Challenge Fund] was designed to stimulate.”