Coventry firm expands after securing new orders
A COVENTRY engineering firm is expanding and creating new jobs after securing a series of new contracts.
The Expert Group has landed orders worth more than £6.5m in the first five months of 2010 and is now set for a record year.
To facilitate growth the company, which makes assembly and automation equipment for the automotive, aerospace, machine tool and transport industries, is set to recruit 10 new workers.
Angelo Luciano, Expert owner and managing director, said the growth in orders reflected a degree of returning confidence in the automotive sector and manufacturing industry in general.
He said: “A number of the leading companies put new project programmes on hold when the recession hit but encouragingly, many have resumed them in the first quarter of the year and that has seen a considerable upturn in our sales.
“That is not just good news for our companies, but also for the region as a whole, as the West Midlands provides a great deal of expertise to the sector.”
Some of the programmes focus on low emissions technology while others address new methods of assembly.
The new orders include work for Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Bentley. Accordingly, Mr Luciano is recruiting a variety of staff including project managers and engineers.
He stressed that ensuring a pipeline of skilled workers was vital for the economy as the sector recovers.
He said: “There is no doubt that when people leave the industry in times of recession, they are reluctant to return and this creates a skills vacuum which will take years to replenish.
“If they have found employment in industries which are not so vulnerable to the cyclical changes that engineering can suffer, then they tend to stay where they are and not return to the sector.
“The area has lost a number of more traditional engineering companies in recent years but we have ensured our future by putting great emphasis on investment in technology and infrastructure while concentrating on areas such as light weight composite materials and new joining processes, we also offer a service right from feasibility through to delivery.”
Since taking over the company in 1998, Mr Luciano has grown the business into a group employing 46 people and an annual turnover of more than £7.5m.
In addition to its Coventry headquarters, Expert has facilities in London, the North East and North West. In 2009 it acquired the Birmingham assembly automation firm Modular Automation International, which specialised in supplying equipment for the medical and plastics industries.
Now fully integrated into the Expert Group and renamed Expert Modular Automation, Mr Luciano is confident this business adds to the group’s diversification strategy into the non-automotive sector.
