Medical insole and braces maker Peacocks Medical Group expands

The Newcastle-based orthotics specialist has opened a second manufacturing facility in Sheffield

A growing maker of medical equipment from Newcastle has talked of its latest expansion with a new factory and products.

Peacocks Medical Group has launched a second Sheffield production site and launched its own brand product range, as well as netting a series of exclusive UK distribution agreements with leading clinical product manufacturers. The firm, which traces its roots back to the 1910s when it set up as a surgical equipment maker, has invested in a 4,000 sqft Sheffield facility which it says will help meet growing demand from the NHS and increase its capacity by 30%.

The group is a specialist maker of orthoses – externally worn devices such as custom shoe insoles, braces, or splints – and has more than 47 clinicians embedded in NHS partner trusts across the country, with more than 60 technicians working from its Newcastle site.

Peacocks says the new site also reflects its commitment to next-generation manufacturing with both its Sheffield facilities transitioning to high-tech, automated production methods that use 3D manufacturing technology and robotics. It says the investment is a “fundamental shift” in how it makes products for patients.

Alongside the boosted production capacity, Peacocks has developed its own brand products and secured exclusive UK distribution agreements with specialist manufacturers and products such as Wellwalking, Fito, On Zen and MediRoyal, with several other agreements in advanced stages.

Those partnerships are said to bring new clinical technologies, data-driven cost-effective products and expanded patient choice to Peacocks, NHS clinicians and commissioners. The firm says its product offering is now more sophisticated.

David Stevens, CEO at Peacocks Medical Group, said: “This is a defining moment for Peacocks Medical Group. Our growth over the past five years reflects the trust that NHS partners have placed in us and this investment is our commitment to earning more of it. With Sheffield operational, our technology programme under way and a genuinely exciting product range coming to market, we are better placed than ever to deliver for patients.

“With a national footprint, a 123-year heritage and a clear strategy for the years ahead, Peacocks MedicaL Group enters this next phase as a stronger, faster and more capable organisation – one built to deliver life-changing orthotics to more patients, better.”

Peacocks is now in its 123rd year, having started as J.C. Peacock and Son Ltd, during WW1. The firm began to work with the newly created NHS in 1948, before progressing to specialise in plastic orthoses before introducing CAD and CAM technologies and gait analysis in the 1980s.