The £12m centre at Braintree contains 60,000 sqft of warehousing space and a 10,000 sqft manufacturing, assembly and quality-control workshop.

Raw materials, goods and components can be freighted from suppliers around the world then stored and assembled at the plant before being sent on-demand to sites.

The storage centre holds the components required to build a house or apartment including flooring, cladding, wall tiles, paneling material, kitchen and bathroom components.

Buyers choose their home finishes and the customised packs are sent to site with the factory able to supply up to 60  homes a day,

Bob Weston, Chief Executive of Weston Group says: “The new Braintree Logistics Centre is a highly advanced distribution and build-off-site centre and represents the future of the volume house building industry.

“Within the next 10 years technology will allow for new homes to be fully manufactured off-site by robots and computer-assisted engineering tools; customer specification choices fully automated; with factory-made components then built on-site using machines like a highly advanced lego-system.

“This step change will help enhance site safety, quality control and automotive-like precision. Our blue-chip factory at Braintree is another pioneering part of the process.”