New jobs on the way as manufacturer relaunches
A manufacturer is looking to create new jobs as it officially relaunched in the UK following its acquisition by the Japanese firm Nidec.
Control Techniques, which employs around 360 people at its global headquarters in Newtown, has been bought out by the Japanese corporation in a deal worth £900 million.
Nidec produces electric motors, used in all kinds of things like iPhones, computers, drones etc.
It is moving more into the industrial sector, and its purchase of Control Techniques supports this.
Nidec has pledged investment in the UK and the creation of new jobs, along with the safeguarding of existing jobs.
Control Techniques also has a site at Stafford Park in Telford. Telford MP Lucy Allan attended an event to mark the formal relaunch process at the site on Friday, where a plaque was unveiled.
Gareth Jones, who is responsible for UK and Ireland on behalf of the firm, said: "It is a really big investment – the biggest they have ever made actually. They want to focus on growing their business out of where they are today.
"We develop very high tech products. Our ambition is to quadruple our sales in the UK. I think we are underrepresented in the UK to where we should be.
"I see a huge opportunity for us in the UK to really shake-up the market. We want to build our distribution channel and we are bringing important new products to market.
"We have 32 people who report to this Telford office and we think that is going to grow. We are trying to recruit an additional 20 engineers to help us accelerate the innovation in the business. We are pretty flexible on where we locate these people. We see Telford as really strategic for us and it is also our centre for sales in the UK."
Ms Allan said: "I love going to businesses and what is happening here is being replicated wherever I go."
Control Techniques has been taken over as part of the sale of parent company Emerson Industrial Automation's motors, drives and electric power business to Kyoto-based Nidec Corporation.
The deal also includes Control Techniques' larger sister company, the French firm Leroy-Somer.
Overall the two businesses employ around 9,700 people, and the Control Techniques side of the business, which was established in 1973, has sales of around £282.6 million.
Control Techniques' manufacturing base in Newtown totals around 160,000 sq ft of space. It also has operations in Germany, China and the USA. Its variable speed drives are used in a variety of industrial products.
