The Norfolk-based firm currently produces around 400 Lowlander muck spreaders a year. We’ve been to Gressenhall to see how they are made.

KEEPING IT BRIEF

  • Bunning celebrates its 120th anniversary in 2026 
  • Next year also marks the 40th anniversary of the first Bunning manure spreader in 1986
  • The company is in the top three of the roughly 25 different brands of manure spreaders available in the UK
  • The Gressenhall plant makes five different ranges: the Farmstar (6.0-8.0m³), and four Lowlanders: Mk4 (9.0-21m³), HD Mk2 (17 and 23m³), Widebody (13 to 40m³) and HBD (14 to 40m³).
  • Over 1,000 parts are needed to make a new spreader, and it takes around two weeks to build one
  • The company sells its spreaders in 18 different countries, and 2024 turnover was £21.3m

Up until the mid-90s, the Norfolk manufacturer made trailers and muck spreaders. It was then that spreader sales really took off and by the end of the decade spreader production exceeded trailer numbers. This growth continued over the next 15 years, and in 2010, when spreaders accounted for 95% of output, the decision was taken to pull out of the trailer business.

One thing that has not changed over the years is the location, bang in the centre of Gressenhall village, where the modest entrance to the yard reveals a mixture of buildings from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. The former 2.0ha (5-acre) footprint increased to 4.0ha (7.5 acres) in 2017 when a new 6,840m² fabrication building and paint shop were built to keep pace with demand. Commissioned in late 2019, part of the £6m-costing factory upgrade included a new shot blasting booth.

Opened in 2020, the 114m long x 60m wide assembly building has the capacity to make 400 manure spreaders a year.
Part of the recent round of investment was this £400,000-costing press brake to fold the steel panels for a spreader body.

It is three years since the last spreader was built in the former assembly building, which has now been refurbished to make slurry doors, suspension systems, drawbar sub-assemblies and spinning decks, freeing up space in the main assembly hall to build more spreaders.

The former assembly building used to make approx. 300 spreaders a year has been refurbished to make ‘smaller’ items.

Shopping list

Bought in components include gearboxes (Berma), pto shafts (Waltersheid), wheels, axles (ADR) and sprung suspension systems. But Bunning does fabricate all of the other parts needed to make a spreader, including the important ones of the chassis, body, floor and slats, slurry door, shafts, drawbar, side extensions, augers and some sprockets.

Welding the side wall of a Vermeer MS800 spreader.

The process of making a spreader begins with sheets (thickness from 3.0 to 25mm) of raw steel cut into the required lengths and shapes by a 12kW laser, which when it arrived in 2020 left the company with no change from £900,000.

All seams are welded, and positioning the body upside down is the ideal time to fit the axle and drawbar to this 150HD Mk4 (15t capacity).
Welding hubs to the end of the spreading plate gearbox. This work will soon be done in the former assembly building. This will free up space in the new one to make more spreaders.

When all the parts are cut and cleaned, there are three processes to prepare a machine for painting. “The first is to make the body sides,” says sales director, Chris Druce. “When this is done, the first build occurs where the sides are stood up and the front is added. The final stage is to add the floor chains, shafts and any options.”

Spreaders ready for floor chains and drive shafts ahead of the shot blasting process.

The business end

To my mind, one of the most interesting stages is making the vertical and horizontal beaters and augers. With the exception of auger flights (made in Sheffield) and nuts and bolts, the rest is all made in house. Steel tube bought in 12m lengths is cut to size and they can make three at a time.

All augers and beaters for twin vertical auger and horizontal beater and spinning disc muck spreaders are individually balanced.

Augers and beaters for all spreaders are individually balanced. The process is similar to that of a car tyre or hedge cutter rotor. Placed in a cradle with floor mounted sensor pads detecting any imbalance when it is spinning, a readout details which end of the auger or beater is out of balance and where additional weight needs to be welded.

Forklifts, or slave wheels, were previously used to shift parts from the shot blasting booth to the paint shop. Today, this is all done by a sky-rail. Everything is moved on the hour.

When added to a machine, the base body is then ready for shot-blasting, followed by priming and top coat. Taking 45 to 60 minutes, the two-part priming process sees a chemical hardener cure the paint and heating the oven to 75-85˚C speeds up the process. The top coat is applied in a similar process in the second booth.

A 120HBD body with bolt-on flared side extensions. From here it will be lowered onto its running gear and towed into the assembly building.
The standard colour is Bunning blue. Two Australian dealers take machines in green, and this colour is sometimes requested on some UK machines. Black is another popular colour.

The more efficient £1.3m paint line removes bottlenecks between shot blasting, prep and painting, after which the partially built spreaders are towed into the main assembly building for finishing. Blue is not the only colour and we saw spreaders finished in green, black and yellow.

Part of the final assembly process sees brakes and liners, hydraulic hoses, floor slats and lights added to this 150HBD, which will soon be off to a customer in Leicestershire.
Nearing completion, the destination of this Farmstar 60 (6.0m³) is Anglesey. The plant also makes the Farmstar 80 (8.0m³).

The latter is for Vermeer, which sells spreaders for North America and Canada through its dealer network. Most of the machines are made at Gressenhall, but Bunning has designed a bespoke range of its twin vertical auger Farmstar machines that can be easily loaded by a skid steer. Built under licence by Vermeer at its Griswold plant in Iowa, these are finished in yellow Vermeer paint with a Bunning logo.

The wide body Lowlander 380HD (38t capacity) is the largest spreader made at Gressenhall. Heaped capacity of the only triple-axle Bunning spreader is 40 cubes.
Larger models from 22m³ will continue to me made at Gressenhall for Vermeer but this is the last 400 (12m³) spreader. The Iowa-based manufacturer will make all future versions of it, and the 300 (10m³) model, for North America and Canada. So far, the plant has made in excess of 100 spreaders for Vermeer.
This triple-axle 380HD will be stripped and loaded into a container for North America. Next to it is a 150 Mk4.

Main markets 

Bunning sales director Chris Druce in front of the most popular model; the 12m³ 120 Mk4.

“The demand for our spreaders is strong,” says Chris, and especially from the home market, where an increasing number of farms are looking to swap artificial fertilisers for farmyard manure.

125 staff work at Gressenhall, where spinning discs are also cut.

Homes for nearly two-thirds of the manure spreaders made at Gressenhall are found in the UK and Ireland though a dealer network that covers all areas. “Generally, smaller machines tend to remain in the UK and the most popular model is the single axle 120 MK4 (12m³ fourth generation).”

The Norfolk manufacturer has importers in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, North America, Canada, South Africa and Korea. In Europe, it enjoys buoyant sales in both Scandinavia and in the mature high-tech market of the Netherlands. 

However, you will not find new Bunning spreaders in any other European country. “We are really busy supplying the main markets and do not have the capacity to take on a new European market.”

Left to right at the rear are Caroline Frost (nee Bunning), Robert Bunning (director), managing director Sarah Day (nee Bunning) and James Bunning, who is the fourth generation of the Bunning family. Middle row (left to right) are John Bunning and David Bunning and up front are Harvey Bunning and Megan Day.

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