Business

Spend safeguards 180 jobs

DENROy Plastics is spending £500,000 in new injection moulding and bristling equipment to augment the manufacture of its award-winning hairbrush and comb range.

It comes as part of a drive to 'reshore' most of its manufacturing back to Bangor from the Far east.

And the firm believes this move will safeguard the jobs of its 180 employees, as it enjoys a period of sustained growth.

"we've been enjoying an unprecedented period of sales growth, and this investment will enable us to produce better products more efficiently," Denman marketing manager Jonathan King said.

"It will make Denman products more competitive in our export markets, which is fundamental to our strategic growth plans.

"equally, it will enable us to manufacture components that we currently outsource and to re-shore products which, until now, we have had to bring in from the Far east. This will give us complete control over product quality and stock control of these items."

The new plant includes a fully automatic 160-tonne Demag injection moulding machine with conveyorised systems and a bespoke Zahoransky bristling machine with separate trimming and finishing stations.

Denman International Ltd is part of the Denroy Group of companies, which is privately owned and headquartered in Bangor and which operates sales offices in London, Amsterdam and Boston.

Last month Denman was the headline sponsor of the Alternative hair Show at London's Royal Albert hall, which attracted an international audience of 5,000 hair stylists and which helped underlined the Denman brand's position as "the hairdressers' hairbrush".