Kellett's, the bed manufacturers whose factory at Oldcastle, Co Meath was destroyed by fire early last year, is to be formally reopened by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, tomorrow.
Workers who arrived for the early shift at Kellett's just before 6 a.m on January 18th last year saw smoke billowing from one of the main production areas. From there it spread to a store and the mattress assembly area.
Within a short time the roof of the main building had collapsed. Firefighters from Oldcastle, Kells, Navan, Trim and Castlepollard fought to get the blaze under control, but the premises was destroyed, except for one small unit.
Thosh Kellett, owner of the business established by his family in 1947, wasted no time. Just three days after the fire, beds were again coming off the production line. A prefab office was installed and 10 weeks later a 14,000 sq ft factory was built. By this stage they were producing 950 beds a week.
By September last year a £5 million, state-of-the-art, 100,000 sq ft factory was in place. The factory is now back in full production, turning out 2,200 beds a week.
Of interest to the Minister will be that Mr Kellett has plans to install recycling equipment at Oldcastle which will enable all the plant's waste wood, fabric and steel to be reused. This German-made equipment has the dual capability to mulch and shred.