New jobs at Telford manufacturer thanks to grant help
A specialist Telford manufacturing company has expanded and created six new jobs after receiving nearly £100,000 from a grant programme supported by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership.
During 2019 Midland Alloy took on new staff and built a warehouse extension at its Stafford Park base after receiving £97,285 from the Marches Building Investment Grant.
The company – which specialises in the manufacture of complex curved metal products and components for UK and European customers and also has its own RadiAl range of shaped aluminium windows and louvres – says the expansion is part of a £500,000 investment in its future.
Director Paul Beirne said the new 4,000 sq ft extension had created a six-metre high, dedicated pallet racking storage facility for long lengths of aluminium, other materials and tools, and extra space for manufacturing.
“This investment will also increase manufacturing space within the existing main factory with the potential to reduce operating costs and increase the capacity for sales growth and more jobs. Our competitiveness should be enhanced due to quicker, efficient and safer methods of handling, storage and first stage processing of long lengths of aluminium extruded stock.
“Six full time employees have already been engaged and the company is looking to hire extra qualified experienced engineers for both the core business and also RadiAl architectural aluminium window products.
“Whilst we have been very severely affected, like most manufacturers, by the coronavirus lockdown in March, our large size capacity complex 5-axis machining facilities specialising in machining aluminium vehicle chassis extrusions, castings and aluminium extruded assemblies for electric vehicle battery trays, have recently attracted new projects from within the automotive industry.
“The MBIG grant has been a major incentive to undertake the new extension and assist future business expansion after a solution has been found for the coronavirus problem.”
The MBIG programme has recently been extended with a new £2.2million programme offering grants of up to £150,000 to help meet the cost of building new premises, or extending and reconfiguring their existing ones. It is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, and supported by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership and Marches Growth Hub.
Programme manager Caroline Cattle said: “Midland Alloy has a track record of success stretching back to 1973 but was being held back from further expansion by a lack of space. The new extension has provided a purpose-built storage area and also freed up space for further growth in their original building.”
Gill Hamer, Marches LEP director, said: “This is fantastic news for Midland Alloy, the new staff and the economy of the area as a whole. By helping ensure that companies such as this can realise their growth ambitions, the Marches LEP and Growth Hub is delivering real results to drive forward our economy.”
The MBIG programme, which is delivered by Herefordshire Council, awards funding for projects that create new jobs or products and meets up to half the cost of successful applications, meaning that projects costing up to £300,000 could secure a grant of £150,000. The scheme covers B2B businesses and does not include retail, social welfare or agricultural companies.
