More jobs are in the pipeline for Brighouse following the arrival in the town of a new engineering venture.

Austin Trumanns Steel has moved into a purpose-build base on the Wakefield Road Industrial Estate to concentrate on steel flame cutting and profiling work.

And managing director Graeme Hill plans to double workforce and turnover within 12 months.

"Our profiling operation had previously been in Dewsbury and we decided to create a dedicated division at Brighouse following an increase in customer demand," he said.

"It is now a separate entity instead of being lost in the other divisions."

The new base, which cost nearly £500,000, covers 17,000 sq ft and employs eight people. Mr Hill said the division has a current annual turnover just hovering under £1 million and he added: "We would like to double the turnover over the next 12 months.

"We are already seeing the benefits from the move in terms of increased orders.

"Since we opened here just before Christmas the business has probably increased by 20 per cent and we expect it to double within six months.

"To achieve that we would certainly need another four or five people at the plant."

He said there were more expansion plans on the drawing board.

"We would obviously take it step by step. There are certain things we can achieve in the facilities which are there and then we would look from there to further investment and go on to another stage."

The division, handling items ranging in size from a beer mat to a sheet steel, is part of Austin Trumanns group which in turn s owned by Murray Metals Group of Companies with a £200 million turnover.

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