Sportex Group is pleased to announce the commencement of a comprehensive refurbishment project at Oriam, the Sports Performance Centre at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. The project involves the renovation of three key 3G synthetic sports pitches: the outdoor 11-a-side pitch, the indoor academy dome artificial pitch, and the indoor 11-a-side pitch, which will begin in November.

This refurbishment aims to provide significantly improved 3G playing surfaces for Heriot-Watt University, catering to elite-level matches and training purposes. The new pitches will be suitable for both rugby and football, achieving certifications for World Rugby and FIFA Quality Pro standards.

As part of the project, Sportex Group will oversee the removal and sustainable off-site disposal of all existing 3G synthetic surfaces, including all infill material. The end-of-life synthetic turf and infill material will be recycled at a specialist facility equipped to handle these materials. Additionally, the existing pre-fabricated shockpad will be removed, stored on-site, and re-installed to ensure a high-quality playing surface.

The Sportex Group is delighted to announce a landmark partnership with the University of Edinburgh and Scottish Hockey, commencing today. As part of this exciting collaboration, the Scottish National Women’s and Men’s teams will relocate their permanent training base to the Peffermill Playing Fields, utilising the world-class facilities both at Peffermill and within the Pleasance Sports Complex.

To mark the beginning of this venture, significant refurbishments are underway at Peffermill’s Hockey Astroturf pitch. Sportex Recycling, in collaboration with Polytan, will be installing a state-of-the-art artificial turf pitch. The new pitch will feature the Poligras Paris GT Zero surface, originally developed for the 2024 Paris Olympics. This innovative turf is the world’s first and only carbon-neutral hockey surface and has been FIH Innovation-certified for dry hockey.

Hockey’s First Climate Neutral Synthetic Turf
The Poligras Paris GT Zero surface at Peffermill will provide an elite training facility in the heart of Scotland, enhancing the University’s commitment to supporting elite hockey performance and fostering athletic excellence. The turf boasts several eco-friendly features:

• 80% biobased material (sugarcane)
• Made with green energy
• Turf Glide technology for unique ‘play wet / play dry’ crossover performance
• Fully floodlit

Centre of Excellence
This collaboration represents a significant step forward in the development of hockey in Scotland, providing athletes with unparalleled resources and support to excel on the national and international stage.

Mark Munro, Director of Sport & Active Health at the University of Edinburgh, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership:

“We are delighted to be reuniting with Scottish Hockey to support the continued development of performance within the national senior teams. The University continues to focus on hockey as one of our priority sports and has a long tradition of student-athlete players progressing to both Scottish and British teams. Most notably, Sarah Robertson’s selection for Paris later this month, having previously won a silver medal in Tokyo, exemplifies our tradition of excellence. This is a very exciting development, and one we look forward to supporting fully.”

An ambitious new project is looking to develop new ways of recycling artificial turf – potentially preventing thousands of tonnes of waste from going to landfill.

The partnership between Sportex Recycling and University of the West of Scotland (UWS) aims to use cutting-edge research to significantly enhance sustainability and innovation within the synthetic turf recycling industry.

Sportex Recycling is an industry leader in this industry, and is the first company in the UK to recycle 100% of synthetic turf.

At the moment, the recycling process is complicated – and a material laid underneath the turf known as ‘shock pads’ – can’t be recycled at all.

The project will be exploring ways of addressing this issue – which would be a significant breakthrough.

Luke McGeechan, Group Commercial Director at Sportex Recycling, said: “We are thrilled to embark on this journey of collaboration with University of the West of Scotland.

“This partnership represents our commitment for continued innovation in sustainable solutions and driving meaningful impact within the recycling sector.”

As the UK’s first licensed closed loop recycling facility, Sportex have been endorsed by the Football Foundation and we are now part of their approved list of recycling companies!

This is a major step towards the Football Foundation provoking action within the industry. As an approved company, Sportex can now contribute to the Football Foundation’s refurbishment projects by recycling pitches and materials.

The recycling stage of an artificial pitch’s life cycle, according to the foundation, is often overlooked, so we are honoured to be endorsed by them to help instigate change.

SAPCA hosted their 8th annual awards ceremony, celebrating the successes of their members across the sports and play facility construction industry.

We are proud to announce Sportex has been recognised at the 2023 awards for our innovative closed loop recycling facility, and we have been awarded the SAPCA The Sports and Play Construction Association Sustainability Award!

Many thanks to SAPCA for hosting the event and congratulations to all other finalists and winners.

Sportex Group won the Innovation Product award for our commitment to developing the UK’s first 360 recycling facility for synthetic sports surfaces.

The BASIS awards bring a wide range of organisations together to celebrate innovative sustainability initiatives within sport across the UK. The event shines a light on the significant influence the sport industry has in aiding future sustainable development.

We are proud to announce that Sportex Group have brought home three awards from the Transform Awards Europe.

The awards included ‘best creative strategy’ and ‘best naming strategy’, in collaboration with Designhouse.

The ceremony recognises best practise of brand development work, in categories focusing on strategy, naming and design execution.

We are delighted to announce that we have been recognised as an accredited Living Wage Employer.

Being accredited as a Living Wage Employer means that we join the real Living Wage movement, a growing civil society campaign that believes a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay.

The awards recognise best practice of brand development work in the region.

We have been shortlisted for the following categories:

– Best creative strategy
– Best naming strategy
– Best visual identity in the property, construction and facilities management sector

The award ceremony takes place on 30th March – wish us luck!

Sportex Group have carried out a decompaction visit at Catto Park.

The visit, for client Aberdeenshire council saw us perform a decompaction on the sports ground.

Glad the weather held up!

Sportex Group are delighted to announce that we have signed up to be the main shirt sponsor of Caledonian Thebans

Caledonian Thebans are Scotland’s leading inclusive rugby club for the forthcoming 21/22 season. The team, who formed in 2002, continue to work for full equality in sport.

Keep an eye out on our social pages for updates on the sponsorship.

Sportex Group used the very best woven carpet technology to replace the existing 3G carpet at the football club.

Have a look at this project we completed at Banks O’Dee FC! We used the very best woven carpet technology to replace the existing 3G carpet with a new GreenFields MX Elite 40. The new field has even been tested and certified to FIFA Quality performance standard!

This week, Sportex Group upgraded the existing 3G facility to deliver a first class facility for Celtic Football Club’s multiple academy and woman’s football teams.

The project involved working with partners Greenfields and Trocellan Group, to install the undisputed elite performance 3G football system within the Scottish football market. The project was completed to FIFA Quality Pro performance standard.

A great project to be involved in and once that we are proud to put our name to.

Sportex were delighted to be chosen as the lead contractor for the upgrade of an existing artificial turf facility at Nairn Academy to a brand new FIFA Quality certified 3G field to be enjoyed by the school and community of Nairn alike.

The works involved the removal of existing 2G carpet and insitu shockpad prior to carrying out a thorough assessment of the existing engineered asphalt. The asphalt was independently signed off before the new shockpad/3G carpet system was installed.

After a thorough tender process, Sportex were delighted to be chosen as preferred contractor the conversion of the existing natural turf field at Raydale Park to a first class, FIFA Quality Pro certified 3G facility for Gretna 2008 Football Club.

The newly installed field will provide a fantastic new facility not only for the club and their aspirations to within the Scottish Lowland Football League but also to the local town and its residents who can utilise the facility to further develop the next generation of football stars.

Sportex group have completed a project at the prestigious Erskine Stewart Melville Schools, which is the largest family of independent schools in Europe.

The project involved converting an existing sand-dressed hockey field to a new FIH category 2 water-based field.

This was completed in a striking two-tone green using TigerTurf’s ‘Wett Pro’ surface, adding another world class hockey facility to the three other FIH compliant hockey pitches within the school’s estate. This recent installation marks the third hockey project we have completed for the school within the last 5 years.

This week, Sportex Group chosen as one of Scottish Leisure Network Group (SNLG) Business Partners.

SLNG Chair, Fraser Makeham, said:
“We are delighted to welcome Sportex Group as our Business Partner to the Scottish Leisure Network Group. They are widely recognised within the sector. Our Business Partners are committed to help us to achieve our mission to provide a platform for sharing knowledge and best practice, by enabling member organisations to improve their operations to create positive change in the health and wellbeing within their communities.”

Sportex Group has announced the acquisition of synthetic sports pitch maintenance specialists Technical Surfaces Ltd.

Technical Surfaces is now widely recognised as one of the largest and leading synthetic sports surface maintenance companies in England & Wales, providing specialist and customer-focused maintenance solutions for artificial turf and polymeric sports facilities. This acquisition, combined with Sportex Group’s already-established maintenance division in Scotland, will offer an unrivalled UK-wide maintenance offering, as well as opening up Sportex Group’s unique recycling solution for end-of-life artificial pitches to a wealth of clients across numerous sectors within the sports and leisure industry.

Telford College commissioned us to work on their indoor football dome. The surface has been completed in time for the coldest months.

The revamping of this indoor 7-a-side football dome involved the removal of the old 3G surface, regrading and key stage inspection of the existing dynamic stone base and the installation of a new 60mm 3G carpet.

The school is located to the south of the Fair City of Perth, in a wonderful rural setting with stunning countryside views including the impressive Kinnoull Hill. In keeping with the schools modern and impressive facilities for pupils and staff, it was decided in 2020 to upgrade their existing artificial turf facility which was used predominantly for the schools hockey and tennis programmes.

Sportex were delighted to be awarded to contract to deliver on the schools requirements. The scope of works included the installation of a new insitu shockpad and sand-dressed artificial turf carpet in two-tone green blue to replace the old shockpad/carpet system. The existing asphalt based, once exposed methodically inspected for compliance, was found to be in a good and stable condition for accepting the new components.

Recently, we completed the upgrade of an existing football/rugby 3G field for the University of Edinburgh, at their Peffermill Sports Complex.

In collaboration with Polytan, the Universities specified artificial turf supplier, we delivered a wonderful upgrade. The new 10,400m2 field has passed both World Rugby and FIFA Quality performance standards and as well as both training and competition use football and rugby, the new two-tone green/blue surface will also be used for American Football and Lacrosse.

In our ever-growing team, we are thrilled to be welcoming Andrew Rintoul to SPORTEX as our new Maintenance Coordinator.

For the past few years, Andrew has been based within the logistics industry. In this capacity, he has developed a wealth of knowledge that will be a great asset to the maintenance department. In Andrew’s words, he is “very excited to be involved with a fast-growing company”, in particular one that is in an industry he has a genuine passion for. Like Andrew, we are looking forward to seeing the future growth of the maintenance division within our group.

SPORTEX has been awarded funding from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to support R&D into our pioneering recycling process for old artificial sports pitches.

The grant will help accelerate the development of new plastic recycling technology, in collaboration with our project research partners, plastic experts Impact Solutions Ltd and Queen’s University Belfast.

The investment is part of £130 million awarded to 1,069 UK businesses from the Sustainable Innovation Fund to support single and collaborative R&D projects over the next two years.

Our goal at SPORTEX is to be driving this positive change within all levels of the industry.

We are delighted to welcome Ewan Peddie to SPORTEX as Sales Manager for the maintenance division. 

Ewan brings years of incredible experience to the company and we are confident he will prove to be a valuable asset to the group. Ewan started as a machinery and sales demonstrator, progressing quickly to sales manager within the machinery sales market, working with leading industry brands. In this role, Ewan frequently dealt with synthetic turf maintenance machinery, which opened an opportunity to work within the sports turf construction industry. This was an opportunity that involved both the natural and synthetic market, providing Ewan with a wealth of knowledge and industry contacts for his new role at Sportex. 

Situated in the heart of beautiful, coastal St Andrews in Fife, the tennis club is home to a vibrant community of tennis lovers. The existing facilities consist of seven outdoor courts and three mini-tennis courts with coaching offered at all levels and social tennis for all ages and abilities.

It was identified back in 2019 that three of the existing artificial turf courts were in a poor condition, with the existing court levels having deteriorated over time to the point of being a health and safety risk to users. Sportex were chosen to completely reconstruct the profile of the courts which included planing and removing the existing asphalt substrate and installing two new layers of porous asphalt to a consolidated depth of 65mm. The club choose TigerTurf ‘Advantage Pro’ as the new playing surface. Key stage inspections were carried out at critical point of the project to ensure the new facility was delivered in line with current SAPCA code of practice.

After being at our Newbridge premises in Edinburgh since the inception of the company in 2005, SPORTEX have taken up new residence at Abbotsinch Industrial Estate in Grangemouth, approximately 15 miles from the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Our new premises offer fantastic indoor warehouse and office space to cater for the expansion of all group business operations, including the launch of our end-of-life artificial turf recycling solution.

The relocation of the business also adds to what is a new chapter in the history of the business with the introduction of our new identity. We look forward to making Grangemouth our home for years to come.