“We have identified sustainable packaging as a potential growth market,” Adam Hunter, Deputy General Manager, Bridgnorth Aluminium

Adam Hunter joined Bridgnorth Aluminium in April 2024 as Deputy General Manager, bringing extensive expertise in cold rolled steel manufacturing across construction, automotive, industrial, and agricultural sectors. His career began as a Designer in the Aerospace industry, working with prestigious clients like Rolls-Royce and Airbus. He later specialised in designing high-precision, fast-volume production lines and gained global experience in operational excellence.
With a focus on root-cause analysis and technical process development, Adam is known for his hands-on approach and ability to lead teams through complex challenges to achieve operational excellence.

AL Circle: Bridgnorth Aluminium has been a leader in flat-rolled aluminium coils for over 80 years. How has the company evolved in terms of technology, innovation, and market demand during this period?

Adam Hunter: Bridgnorth Aluminium (BAL) was established in 1933 in Wolverhampton and evolved post-war as an integrated foil rolling plant for the UK confectionary and tobacco industry.

In the early 1990s, under Swiss ownership, we diversified into lithographic material, investing in a state-of-the-art manufacturing centre with the latest rolling and finishing equipment from Germany.

This two-pillar strategy, foil and litho, continued for a decade, during which lithography demand increasingly grew. Up until this point in our history, we were focussed mainly on the UK market.

However, under new ownership within the Viohalco Group, a major effort was made to increase exports. A modern hot mill was commissioned in 2003 to meet the quality demands of lithography, and global sales began to boom.

The foil operations ceased to be part of operations on the Bridgnorth site in 2011.

Foil pre-material continues to be made to this day and is encouragingly growing in volume. In 2014, we opened a second casting route for rolling slabs from the primary ingot and purchased a multi-slitter for downstream finishing.

A £60m investment in new rolling and finishing equipment for litho was commissioned in 2016, doubling the installed capacity and introducing the latest stretch levelling technology.

A further £1m was spent on a new R&D facility to support product and process development. Over the last ten years, we have expanded our product range into automotive heat and sound absorbing materials, conductive material for transformers, architectural panel material and pre-material for battery foils – critical to the emerging electrification market.

In 2024, Bridgnorth Aluminium will be 95% export-led, with sales across the EU, North America, India and Brazil.

We have recently created 25 new jobs to take our workforce past the 300 figure and are currently recruiting for a further 10 positions. Read the full interview here.