Partner Article

Manufacturer gets help from recession

Thirty new jobs will be created at a brake pad manufacturer which is getting a helping hand from the recession.

Hartlepool firm TMD Friction wants to boost its workforce from 426 to 456 by January.

The recruitment drive is due to the firm’s success during the recession. It concentrates on making brake pads for the “after market” – cars that need new pads after they have thousands of miles on the clock.

Plant manager Malcolm Scott said: “People are keeping their cars for longer. It is a culmination of a downturn in the economy. We are seeing the benefit of people not replacing their cars as much.”

Recruitment has already started for the extra workers who are needed to handle a surge in new orders from UK clients.

Bosses also have a business plan which could see £4.4m invested in new machinery in the next two years if it is approved.

That would mean another 30 staff needed to operate them and if it happens, the Hartlepool factory’s workforce would be just short of 500.

Part of the success is down to the workforce agreeing to a change from a five-day to six-day working week, said Mr Scott.

He added: “We are immensely proud of them. You can have the best management team in the world, but if the shop floor is not behind you, then you have had it.

“We have come a long way this year and we have come from a low figure to breaking records.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .