Jobs boost as firm is set to expand

A total of 145 new jobs will be created in the £4 million expansion of a Brownhills manufacturing firm that lost 350 workers during the recession.

Castings Plc was originally due to create 45 new jobs with its warehouse expansion.

But bosses have submitted a fresh plan for a warehouse almost four times as big – today revealing it will result in an extra 100 positions.

The firm has been running for around 150 years and employs more than 1,000 people at its headquarters in Lichfield Road, Brownhills, and in Fradley Park, Lichfield. It also has the William Lee foundry in Derbyshire.

David Gawthorpe, chief executive of the firm, said he was confident Walsall Council would approve the plans.

He said: "At the moment we are expanding for the future. It's allowing us to develop the business."