Business

80 new engineering jobs in £4 million investment by Derry firm

Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell and Mark Hutchinson announce Hutchinson Group’s plans to create 80 new jobs at the group's Kilrea and Antrim sites. Picture by Kelvin Boyes, Press Eye
Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell and Mark Hutchinson announce Hutchinson Group’s plans to create 80 new jobs at the group's Kilrea and Antrim sites. Picture by Kelvin Boyes, Press Eye Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell and Mark Hutchinson announce Hutchinson Group’s plans to create 80 new jobs at the group's Kilrea and Antrim sites. Picture by Kelvin Boyes, Press Eye

DERRY firm Hutchinson Engineering has announced 80 new jobs as part of a £4.1 million investment in its Kilrea and Antrim sites.

The jobs, which will be created over the next three years, will be a mix of manufacturing roles along with positions in business development and sales and marketing.

They follow a £3.2m investment earlier this year when the group announced an expansion of the Kilrea site to 60,000 square feet along with the purchase of two new advanced lasers.

Forty of the new roles have already been filled with the latest investment supported by a £500,000 grant from Invest NI.

Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell, who just a day earlier announced a new advisory group to target energy costs for the north's embattled manufacturing sector, said the investment would help the firm secure new business in target markets.

"The engineering sector accounts for a large proportion of manufactured exports from Northern Ireland," Mr Bell said.

"This investment by Hutchinson's sends a clear signal to the advanced engineering sector across Great Britain and internationally that Northern Ireland has the skills and expertise to be a market leader.

"The 80 new jobs will generate £1.85million annually in additional salaries and create valuable manufacturing employment opportunities in the Causeway Coast and Glens and surrounding council areas."

Formed in 1971, Hutchinson Engineering is a leading sub contract laser and metal fabrication firm with a specialist aerospace arm, AeroTech, based in Antrim and design company, H360, co-located with Hutchinson Engineering in Kilrea.

The group currently employs 140 staff and manufactures components for a number of sectors including transport, material handling, oil and gas, medical, agricultural and aerospace.

Managing director Mark Hutchinson said the objective was to double business revenue over the next three years by investing in technology as well as skilled staff.

"We aim to achieve this by growing our customer base and differentiating ourselves in competitive global markets by providing value-added products and services," he said.

"Investing in state-of-the-art technology, additional skilled staff and further expanding our manufacturing capabilities at Kilrea will help us to achieve this goal."

The boost for manufacturing comes as the latest Northern Ireland employment figures, also published yesterday, show that businesses reported an additional 8,480 new jobs over the year with growth driven by the manufacturing and services sector.

Speaking at the launch of the Energy and Manufacturing Advisory Group at Marlborough Engineering in Belfast on Tuesday, Minister Bell said the total number of manufacturing jobs in the north was now in the region of 80,000 - the highest since 2008.