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.
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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