Lancashire-based Solomon Commercials has opened its seventh new factory to enhance existing capacity levels and meet the rising demand for refrigerated delivery vehicles.

The new 35,000 sq ft facility, which is now fully operational, will be based in Darwen. It will be focused on manufacturing refrigerated delivery vehicles that operate in the dot.com or online shopping sector.

Solomon’s new facility now means that the firm has over 240,000 sq. ft of production facilities that produce more than 3,500 refrigerated vehicles each year. The new Darwen production will be staffed by an 80-strong workforce, with Scott Atheis as factory manager.

Anthony Clegg, sales director at Solomon Commercials, added, “Overall, the e-commerce sector has been growing each year, but more and more businesses are now looking to operate online.

“The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for businesses to pivot their operations. It’s prompted a surge in demand, which will probably become the norm as more companies become comfortable operating a dot.com business.

“We’ll now be able to manufacture up to 1,500 vehicles through this one facility alone and we expect this to increase year on year as businesses are looking to operate highly efficient urban vehicles. Our new facility will help us to comfortably answer current and future levels of demand from the industry.”