APKI Opens Its New Lincoln Facility
Team Lincolnshire ambassador APK Industries has moved! Previously in Sparkhouse they now operate from purpose-built premises at South Hykeham Business Park, Boundary Lane, Lincoln.
The new site brings together a fully equipped workshop, engineering facilities covering the whole of their production line, and an open plan office, across 154.77 sq m (1,666 sq ft). It is a practical change rather than a symbolic one, but it marks a real shift in what APKI is: from a start-up developing an idea into a manufacturer building, testing, and shipping Portable Power Stations (PPSs) from its own premises.
Outgrowing the incubator
Sparkhouse did exactly what it is designed to do. It gives Lincolnshire businesses somewhere to start, a community of other founders, and a link into the University of Lincoln's research and graduate talent.
But as their operations expanded and demand grew, they needed more space and a facility of their own. The new premises have been purpose-built around the way their units are created.
A fully kitted out workshop
Assembly, wiring, and finishing all happen in a space set up for the job, with the tooling and bench capacity to work on multiple units at once rather than in sequence.
Engineering facilities for the entire production line
This is the substantive change. Every stage of the build sits under one roof: design iteration, assembly, testing, and quality checks. Nothing has to move between locations mid-build, and nothing waits on space becoming free elsewhere.
An open plan office
Engineering, operations, and the APKI team now have a dedicated work and meeting space. Anyone who has worked in manufacturing knows how much faster problems get solved when the person who designed a component can walk twenty feet and look at it.
What this means for their customers
APKI supplies four of the six UK Distribution Network Operators, whose networks between them serve around 23 million customers. They also supply defence and security users, humanitarian and disaster relief operations, and a widening range of sectors including agriculture, healthcare, and even the entertainment industry.
Those customers care about three things: does the unit work, can you get it to us, and can you support it. The new facility helps with all three.
Capacity
More bench space means more units in build at any one time. For DNOs planning seasonal readiness ahead of a winter storm season, or humanitarian operators mobilising against a deadline, order volume matters as much as the specification of the individual unit.
Control
Bringing the full production line into one site means quality checks happen where the build happens, by the people who did the build. For defence and security users, and for anyone deploying units into environments where a failure is not an inconvenience but a serious problem, traceability is very important.
Responsiveness
Consolidating under one roof shortens the internal handoffs that slow a build down. It also gives us somewhere to properly host customers: DNO teams, defence buyers, and prospective clients can now come to Lincoln, see units being built, and put their hands on the product rather than reading a datasheet.
They have achieved ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications, assessed by the British Assessment Bureau, already govern how they work and their new site has passed all the checks.
Staying in Lincolnshire
APKI could have moved anywhere. We chose to move four miles down the road. South Hykeham Business Park sits just south-west of Lincoln, which keeps us close to theuniversity so we can continue to foster our relationship, close to the Lincolnshire supply chain we buy from, and close to the people who work here. Lincolnshire has a deep engineering and manufacturing base, and a growing cluster of businesses working on energy, agri-tech and low-carbon technology. We would rather be part of that than leave it behind.
It also means the jobs stay here. As APKI grows, the roles created by that growth are Lincolnshire roles.
The same mission, better equipped
None of this changes what APKI is for. They believe access to energy is a fundamental right rather than a privilege, and we build silent, zero emission power for the situations where that principle is tested hardest: a medically vulnerable household during an unplanned outage, a field hospital, a relief operation with no grid to connect to.
A better workshop does not change that argument. It just means we can act on it for more people, more quickly.
If you would like to discuss how APKI's Portable Power Stations could support your operations, or arrange a visit to the new facility, get in touch here.