Pitch manufacturer that's achieving success on home turf

SIS Pitches, based at Glasson Industrial Estate, Maryport, is entering its busiest time of the year as it supplies its SISTurf product to sports grounds around the UK, with up to 40 customers, including football teams Celtic and Rangers, Saracens rugby club and Loughborough University.

The company is part of the global SIS Group, which has sites across the world including in Ireland, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, the Middle East and Angola.

SIS Pitches' COO Rob Hope outside the Maryport Factory (Image: SIS Pitches)

Chief operating officer Rob Hope says about 70 per cent of its work is done between May and August, when organisations such as schools, universities and sports teams have downtime to carry out maintenance.

As demand for its products grows the company has invested £500,000 in two new tufting machines, which insert the synthetic yarn into backing material.

The new machines are able to increase the speed of production, as well as the flexibility for making different types of products.

"They give us an increased capacity to be able to improve and increase our output from around 600,000 square metres to about 800,000," says Rob.

Yarn being produced at SIS (Image: SIS)

Once the factory has seen the benefits in efficiency, cost saving and output from the new machines, he hopes to invest in two more at a similar price, taking its overall capacity to one million square metres a year.

While 90 per cent of the company’s business involves supplying the turf which SIS installs around the UK and the world, the factory also provides products to third party customers in Britain.

Rob says the potential market share of these customers has grown since Brexit as it is no longer as easy for them to import products.

"We knew that we wouldn't be able to get to a million square metres just from SIS, so what we had to do was get five or six external customers to be able to get to that million square metres,” he says.

"With the two new tufting machines we've got now, because of the flexibility and the increased production spread, we're in a position where we've won three or four contracts last year and this year.”

He hopes the combination of the new machinery and new customers coming on board will enable them to hit the million square metre target within the next two years.

The growth in demand is being driven by factors such as more extreme weather patterns and the growth of grassroots sport.

"Obviously, being able to play in all weathers is a big factor for schools and football teams to invest in the artificial pitches rather than the natural," says Rob.

"But it's not only that, a lot of it comes from the increased player numbers across the UK at the moment. The women's game is expanding significantly.

“We're also part of a framework which is governed by the Football Foundation and the Football League, where they invest a certain amount of money each year in grassroots football.

“If they're wanting an increased number of players across their pitches, you can only have so many hours playing on a natural surface.

“They'll be able to do 30 to 40 hours a week, every week, on their artificial surface and it's also a great point of revenue for these clubs because they can hire it out when they're not using it themselves.”
SIS as a group is working towards going net zero on its scope one and scope two emissions, which cover emissions it produces directly and those which come from energy use respectively, by the end of 2028.

It is also trying to achieve net nutrient neutrality through schemes such as planting a certain number of trees alongside every pitch it installs to offset its environmental effects.

​​"With the tufting machines being twice as fast it means that we can reduce the tufting time for a pitch from two weeks to one week so there's less use of energy,” says Rob.

He is also hopeful that the factory will be able to install solar panels by the end of the summer.

The business has appointed a sustainability manager who is looking into ways to recycle material.

This is alongside activities such as looking for alternative infills to SBR rubber, which is being banned due to the damage it causes when it ends up in the environment and rivers as microplastic waste.

SIS Pitches is also working with Loughborough University to install a waterless hockey pitch.
Artificial hockey pitches are often watered to reduce friction but the game is moving away from using this method in a bid to become more sustainable.

The business currently employs 52 people, but is planning to take on up to four more in the factory, as well as hiring people in HR and finance over the next two to three years as it strives to achieve its growth targets.

"We appreciate that the economy's not the best in the local area and we're probably one of the biggest employers in the town,” says Rob.

"We're committed to West Cumbria.”