Member Article

100% growth for North East company

A NORTH EAST based manufacturer of undercarriage systems and components for tracked construction machinery has seen a 100% increase in turnover.

Berco UK, based in Spennymoor, saw its £7.6m turnover to the year ending September 2009 double to £15.3 million in the following 12 months.

Andrew Cornforth, managing director of Berco UK, said: “We have built steadily out of the slump which hit our industry in early 2009 and our production output and employee levels rising so dramatically are testament to that.

“In the middle of 2009, we were producing around 150 units per month, compared with almost 800 in November 2010, which is growth in excess of 400%.

“We are now seeing the benefits of the model we brought here to Spennymoor. There is a willing workforce in the area, which we can turn to if we need to employ further, and the growth we have seen in 2010 gives us optimism for the coming months.”

The company invested more than £64,000 in a second assembly line, which became operational in February 2010, increasing the capacity for shift work, and employment has risen from 20 in June 2009 to 33.

Berco UK, which was established in 2006, moved to Spennymoor from Middlesbrough in 2007.

Berco UK is part of the German multi-national ThyssenKrupp Group which has several other UK-based subsidiaries located throughout the North East.

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