Black Country Firm Invests £1M

Up to 30 new people are to be taken on at a Black Country plastic coatings company after it won several new contracts.

Applied Coatings Technologies Ltd is opening a second site at Unit 4, Park Lane Estate, Oldbury, after agreeing a 10-year lease on the 15,952 sq ft unit.

The company is planning to move its manual spraying business to the new unit while expanding its robotic spraying sector at its existing premises in Tipton Road, Oldbury.

Christine Hancock, commercial director, said it already employs 85 members of staff but will be looking to take on a further 25 to 30 operators, technicians and managers in the next 12 months.

The company has invested £350,000 on Unit 4 and was spending a further £700,000 on its Tipton Road premises to install a third robotic spraying line to support new contracts in the automotive industry.

"As a result of growth in the automotive side of our work, we are in a position to open second premises to undertake the manual spraying operation of the business," she said. "Unit 4 is ideal and we are hoping to start production there next month."

The lease agreement with Applied Coatings Technology is another success for LCP. It is the fourth estate in its portfolio to become fully occupied in just a couple of months.

Dunstall Hill, Wolverhampton; The Stourbridge Estate; and The Grain Estate, Liverpool, are all now filled with tenants as businesses become more confident about the future. This is in addition to a number of other LCP estates that are already fully occupied.

Paula James, sales negotiator, said: "We are certainly seeing increased interest in many of our industrial and business parks and we are very pleased to welcome another thriving local company that is promising to help the Black Country economy by staying in the area as it grows."