Contract wins and export orders lead to new jobs at Stockport engineering company

Stockport-based WFEL, a worldwide supplier of military equipment, is creating 45 jobs at its site in Heaton Chapel, to meet demand for its products, both in the UK and overseas.

The company – affectionately known by both current and past employees as ‘Fairey’s’ in recognition of its heritage name of Fairey Engineering – is renowned for its precision engineering of military bridging systems which have already been supplied to more than 40 Armies around the world.

The bridges are manufactured from military-grade lightweight aluminium, specially manufactured for WFEL, allowing them to be quickly deployed, which is a necessity when used in areas of flooding and other natural disasters.

New jobs immediately available incorporate a number of supervisory roles, as well as production and machine shop personnel including welders and fitters, to work on the manufacture of WFEL’s DSB Dry Support Bridges, which are the longest non-reinforced bridges of their class anywhere in the world.

In the New Year, the company will also be continuing its recruitment for 120 new specialist roles created as part of the £2.3bn Ministry of Defence contract for new Boxer Armoured Military Vehicles.

The UK re-joined the Boxer programme in 2018 and since then has committed £2.3bn to deliver more than 500 vehicles to the British Army.

They will be made up of four variants: Infantry carrier, specialist carrier, command vehicle and ambulance.