Manufacturer creates 33 jobs with £1.6m investment

Castings firm Chamberlin & Hill is forging ahead with expansion after investing £1.6m in a second Walsall site.

It is creating 33 jobs at the site, which will manufacture turbo-charger bearing housings that are produced by Chamberlin & Hill’s Walsall foundry.

In November it closed its foundry in Leicester with the loss of 17 jobs, after it suffered from reduced demand. However the Walsall foundry had seen capacity increased after investments in machinery.

The business, which accounts for more than half of the £35m annual turnover of stock market-listed Chamberlin, has signed a 10-year lease for a property on the Bloxwich Lane Estate.

The move follows the manufacturer winning “major multi-million pound” contracts to supply fully machined turbo charger bearing housings.

Chamberlin’s chief executive Kevin Nolan said: “These new facilities support our work at our Walsall foundry, which is a leading producer of bearing housings for the automotive industry.

“Our new machining capability will help to drive a new phase of growth and we expect to be increasing our investment in the site further as production builds.”

The deal for the 21,245 sq ft unit has been agreed with property and investment company LCP, which owns and manages the estate.