Investment and growth at Porter & Woodman

The first part of the investment by the 13-year-old Porter & Woodman Group has seen the arrival of a second CNC router allowing the business to double the capacity of its production machinery and enable it to keep up with existing orders and look for new customers.

Sales director, Mike Hodgetts, said: "I'm delighted with the new machine which came online this week. Productivity began to bottleneck towards the end of last year, but now we can go out and look for new orders with confidence."

The new machine also helps guarantee jobs for the expanding workforce that climbed through 40 personnel in December.

Manager of the CNC machine shop, Colin Inchley said that he was thrilled with the new machine, which is quicker and more efficient.

"It's great news that the company is expanding and able to offer new manufacturing jobs - there aren't many of those around these days."

Porter & Woodman, based at Mill Race Lane, is made up of four separate businesses - printservicespadnw.co.uk, woodenboxuk.com, wineandhampergifts.co.uk and chalkboardsuk.co.uk.

The box and crate side of the group is the main employer with 28 staff.

The second phase of the investment will see the addition of a third warehouse on the Mill Race Lane Estate in August.

The new warehouse will mean an improvement in packing and distribution capacity for all the businesses.

It will include new forklift trucks and racking and will involve taking on four to five more staff.