Firm's plans to expand means jobs

A Midland manufacturing firm that lost 350 workers in the recession is planning a huge multi-million pound expansion that will create new jobs.

Brownhills-based Castings Plc was given the go-ahead for a new warehouse in January - but bosses are now working on an expansion three times bigger than that originally planned at a cost of £4 million.

Plans have already been approved to build a warehouse with 1,945 square metres of floor space which would create at least 45 jobs.

But David Gawthorpe, chief executive of the firm which produces iron castings, said more jobs would be created if proposals to make the warehouse even bigger were given the nod by Walsall Council planning chiefs.

It would be built next to the firm's existing factory and head office in Lichfield Road.

Mr Gawthorpe said: "We are getting busier and need more room. It will gives us more space for expansion."

The firm has been running for more than 150 years and employs more than 1,000 people at its head office as well as at its sites in Brownhills, Fradley Park, Lichfield, and the William Lee foundry in Derbyshire.

It supplies machined components to the truck and auto industry but was hit by the recession and axed 350 workers in 2009. Production dropped by up to 60 per cent and profits plunged from £16.7m to just £3.6m.

But the business has managed to recruit 150 people since last summer as its fortunes improved.

Mr Gawthorpe added: "We are doing a lot better. We are hopeful we will get more business in the future.

"The original investment would have created about 45 new jobs but there will be more than that if the second application goes through."