Wednesday 6 May 2015

DPE set for more Nissan work

DPE Automotive, which this week completed a £2 million investment at its Newton Aycliffe site, has new contracts to supply Nissan’s plants in Sunderland, Barcelona and Russia.
DPE Automotive has also been invited to tender for another Nissan contract due to start in 2017 following a visit by Nissan officials to the plant.

Completion of the factory upgrade, which includes a new press shop, robotic welding equipment and raising roof height to increase capacity, completes a remarkable period at DPE since it was rescued by a management buy-out a year ago.

The firm’s ongoing relationship with key customer Gestamp Tallent has played a key part in DPE’s turnaround, setting it on course to recruit more workers, apprentices, and support the regional automotive supply chain.

The firm now employs 108 staff, 12 apprentices and expects to take on another three apprentices in September, and another 10 to 12 staff next year.

Peter Coates, managing director of DPE Group is reported as saying: “Obviously growth means jobs and we have already converted all of our agency workers now to full time employees and have also recruited recently a new operations manager and three toolmakers to support our growing product portfolio.”

“We are also recruiting further apprentices this year to continue to develop the future skills base of the company,” he added.

"In the near future we will commence a recruitment programme for further skilled and semi- skilled positions to support the new projects as they come on stream and expect turnover to increase around 40 per cent and expect the workforce to grow by a similar amount,” Coates said.

“All in all the new press shop has seen us commit to a £2m project for the company and all within only 12 months of concluding the MBO last year”, he added.

Company executives have planned to exhibit at the annual SMMT ‘Meet the buyer’ event next week in Westminster, London, in a bid to showcase the DPE manufacturing facility to JaguarLandRover, Honda and Vauxhall to win further business.


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