Midlands Assembly Network targets £7.5m growth

Members of the group, known as the Midlands Assembly Network, offer various engineering solution, from high volume precision pressings and electrical control systems to tooling and PCB assembly and together employ 550 people across ten manufacturing facilities. Tony Hague, chairman and managing director of group member PP Electrical Systems, said: "There's a lot of negative talk about manufacturing output slowing down and if we're not careful we'll talk ourselves into another recession. We recognise how tough it is out there, but we prefer to be positive and look at what we can do to seek out and exploit new opportunities. Talking across the nine firms in the group, there is definitely a sense of new projects starting after months of prep work." He continued: "With what we've got planned, I would expect us to add £7.5m of sales in 2013 and this should lead to nearly 150 jobs – some of whom will be apprentices. It's important we create that pipeline of future engineers. "We'll also be looking to invest over £2m to aid this expansion. This will involve new machinery, training programmes and the continued introduction of lean processes." The network has also announced the appointment of manufacturing veteran Steve Gaston (pictured) as its first dedicated business development manager and the launch of a new group website.