Up to 100 new jobs are set to be created at trailer manufacturer Don-Bur – on the back of a £4 million investment at the company.
Don-Bur – which employs 450 staff over three sites in Longton, Stoke and Fenton – wants to boost its workforce in the next three years as part of plans to increase turnover by £10 million.
The firm has recently made a multi-million pound investment in new plant machinery and software at its Mossfield Road site to increase capacity in what bosses have described as the company’s ‘first attempt at automation.’
But chairman David Burton has reassured staff that their jobs are safe - and has instead revealed plans to increase the company’s workforce by more than 100.
He said: “This is our first attempt at automation but this doesn’t mean that we are losing staff or taking away people’s jobs, it just means we can deploy our skilled workers to other departments within the business where they are desperately needed.
“We have been struggling to recruit staff with the skills we need for a long time and this investment is a good way for us to fill those gaps and increase capacity at the same time.
“Over the next three years we will probably need 100 new people.”
The new investment at Don-Bur includes a state-of-the-art fibre laser and auto welding cell as well as press brakes and a raw material and parts management hub.
The equipment will allow the company – which designs and manufactures commercial vehicle trailers and rigid bodywork – to mass-produce a range of products for the growing rental market.
David said: “Our turnover has been steady over the last four or five years, we have been hovering at around £53 million, but now we need to take it to the next level because our competitors are gaining market share.
“In the past, we have been successful in the retail market but that is struggling a little now. So for the past two or three years we have had to look at other growing sectors such as parcel delivery.
“It is important to keep our eye on the trends and look at what our customers are doing.”
He added: “This £4 million investment is a large sum for us but it will make us a truly standalone business.
“We will no longer have to use external companies to laser-cut our materials which means we can keep the costs down and that our supply chain will be better and more reliable.
“It will also allow us to break into other markets.”
On the back of the multi-million pound investment, Don-Bur is now considering expanding its Longton headquarters by leveling off an adjoining six-acre site, which is currently unused.
It will mean the company can use the additional space to store its trailers or expand its production areas.
Don-Bur’s group marketing manager, Richard Owens added: “We are a premium manufacturer and we have always been seen as the Rolls-Royce in our industry.
“Our success is down to the fact that we are innovators, so we need to keep producing innovative products and added value for our customers and in order to do that we need to invest.”
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