Member Article

Aerospace centre to bring in up to 50 jobs for Burnley

Kaman Tooling has officially opened its new £2.5m manufacturing plant at the new Innovation Drive Aerospace Supply Park in Burnley - and is aiming at further growth.

The company, which has relocated from Darwen’s India Mill to the new 34,000 sq ft site, is looking to create 50 new jobs by 2015.

The Kaman Tooling Centre of Excellence, which will house specialist equipment, is located adjacent to Aircelle’s UK headquarters.

The new facility will considerably increase the capacity of Kaman Tooling, already a world-leading supplier of mould and assembly tooling, along with ground support and handling equipment.

Kaman managing director, Mark Podmore, said: “The site will continue to expand, and will increase to 64,000 square feet in 2015, creating up to 50 new jobs.”

Among machinery at the site is a 20-metre, five-axis CNC milling machine and a six-metre co-ordinate measuring machine used for ‘advanced and complex high-precision digital inspection’.

Kaman Tooling was formed in 2008 when the Kaman Corporation, based in Connecticut, USA, bought Darwen company Brookhouse Holdings Ltd for £43million.

Outgoing Burnley Council leader Julie Cooper, Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle and Jim Larwood, president of Kaman Aerosystems, all attended the official opening ceremony.

Cllr Cooper said: “I’m delighted to see the transformation of the former Michelin site on which Kaman now sits, which has come about through close partnership work between the council and the private sector.

“Burnley has a reputation for getting things done , and I’m so proud that just 12 months down the line from Innovation Drive’s inception, to be standing here in this superb advanced manufacturing facility, on time and on budget.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .