Recruitment paves way for expansion at Ceram

NORTH Staffordshire materials technology company Ceram is continuing its expansion with more recruitment.

The Stoke-on-Trent-based group has already taken on 20 specialist employees in 2013 – and it will need about a dozen more before the end of the year.

Ceram, which works with sectors including healthcare, construction, ceramics and aerospace to develop and test new products and processes, is planning growth across its service range.

As a result it will be looking for specialists in materials science, building technologies, chemistry and mechanical and electrical design.

This follows appointments ranging from graduate interns to senior technologists over the first six months of the year.

Tony Kinsella, chief executive at Ceram, said: “Businesses are looking for better ways of doing things and being more innovative, and that’s behind a lot of our growth.

“They may want to use less material, save energy, make something lighter or comply with new regulations – but the common factor is innovating to improve revenues and competitiveness.

“We don’t do science for science’s sake here. There has to be a commercially-worthwhile end result for our customers, which means that anyone who wants to join us must have sound commercial awareness.

“It always gives me immense satisfaction when we can bring national and international experts in their fields to Stoke-on-Trent.”

At least five of the new recruits will work on technology that could help ceramics manufacturers cut the energy they use by up to 30%.

In laboratory tests, firing temperatures and times were significantly reduced, and now a commercial-scale kiln has been built to see if the results can be replicated on the factory floor.

Last year Ceram won around £2m towards the project from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund, and the 25-metre-long (80 feet) kiln was completed in April.

Other growth areas for the group include developing new ways of securing low-level nuclear waste and developments for drug delivery in the pharmaceutical industry.