Further growth at Compound Feed Engineering, trading as the CFE Group, over the last five years – both organic and through acquisition – has led to the company taking on additional premises in the UK.

CFE Group specialises in the refurbishment of pelleting and other feed manufacturing machinery, and the supply of spares and consumables. CFE Group is also the UK and Ireland agent for global pelleting equipment manufacturer CPM. The Group has its headquarters in Ireland, but all engineering operations are performed at its UK facilites.

In 2021, CFE purchased the machine engineering company Sevale Engineering. Located near Gloucester, Sevale has increased CFE’s UK footprint, and the company now concentrates on servicing smaller milling businesses in the south-west region. More recently, in March this year, CFE acquired Turner Grain, a Dublin-based process engineering specialist with over 40 years’ service to the compound feed and biomass industries.

CFE managing director Con Lynch says the business is seeing more interest in energy-efficient feed milling equipment through its CPM agency. As the number of machines installed increases, so does the demand for its after services. The company is also seeing rising demand for feed machinery refurbishment from European countries such as Italy and Germany, while the waste pelleting sector is also growing steadily.

EXPANSION

The company has had its UK base at Haydock on Merseyside since it was established over 20 years ago. Strong growth has seen CFE’s expansion in 2022 to include a second premises at Haydock.

As a result, operations are now split. Refurbishment of feed mill equipment takes place at the original building at Haydock Lane Industrial Park, now called the UK Refurbish Plant. The company, which has invested significantly in high- pressure die and roll cleaning equipment over the past decade, continues to introduce and implement updated and automated processes at Haydock Lane since it commenced production in 2002.

The second new premises at Arrox Park at Haydock is the CFE Group’s Service Plant. This facility is dedicated to servicing used CPM equipment, such as pellet mills, roller mills and hammer mills, as well as other associated machinery. It also serves as CFE Group’s storage and distribution centre for its extensive stock of CPM spare parts.

“The CFE Group is conscious of the need to reduce energy consumption in feed production,” says Mr Lynch. “We are focusing our efforts on increasing energy efficiency and optimising installed power at the Pellet Station.”

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