Fifty new jobs created as MTL Group moves

MTL Group, which laser cuts, bends, machines and fabricates steel to customers' requirements has a global blue-chip customer base including BAE, Caterpillar, Babcock and Renault Truck Defence. High profile projects include the supply of armoured belly-plates for increasing IED protection on British Army Vehicles in Afghanistan and key structural components for offshore wind farms. Following a management buyout in 2006, the business has more than doubled in size and is now relocating from its current premises to a new 300,000 square feet advanced manufacturing facility, which will house the company's state of the art equipment and will provide space for continued expansion. The company has invested over £6 million in world class equipment over the last four years including a 640 tonne Robot Press, and a Big-Bed Bevel Laser which is a 20 m machine - both are the largest of their kind in the world. Over £2 million is to be invested in the infrastructure of the new site to give a high efficiency, low energy facility and the company move is expected to be complete by January 2011. The company has recently signed its largest-ever export contract worth £4 million to supply components to a German defence and aerospace group. It has expanded its export markets beyond Europe to North Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America.