80 new engineering jobs announced

The plans, which are supported by Invest Northern Ireland, include recruiting additional skilled staff and purchasing new state of the art technology to allow Hutchinson to target new high value business in the automotive, aerospace and materials handling sectors.

Earlier this year, Hutchinson publicised its £3.2million investment in two new lasers and its new 60,000 sq ft, manufacturing site in Kilrea, signalling its confidence and commitment to growth.

Announcing the new jobs, Jonathan Bell said: “Hutchinson is an ambitious and long established family business which has experienced steady growth in recent years. This latest investment in leading edge technology will significantly enhance the firm’s engineering capabilities and enable it to secure new business in its target markets.

“The engineering sector accounts for a large proportion of manufactured exports from Northern Ireland. Hutchinson’s investment sends a clear signal to the advanced engineering sector across Great Britain and internationally that Northern Ireland has the skills and expertise to be a market leader.

“The 80 new jobs, to be recruited over the next three years, will generate £1.85million annually in additional salaries and create valuable manufacturing employment opportunities in the Causeway Coast and Glens and surrounding council areas.

“Invest Northern Ireland has worked closely with Hutchinson over many years and its support is ensuring that the business has the necessary management team, structure, systems and skills in place to achieve its growth potential.”

Formed in 1971, Hutchinson Engineering is a leading sub contract laser and metal fabrication firm with a sister specialist aerospace arm, AeroTech, based in Antrim and a design company, H360, co-located with Hutchinson Engineering in Kilrea.

Invest NI has offered Hutchinson £500,000 to support the creation of the 80 new jobs. The roles consist of mix of advanced manufacturing roles, business development and sales and marketing across the Group. Some 40 of these roles have already been filled.

Mark Hutchinson, Managing Director of Hutchinson Engineering said: “Our objective is to double business revenue over the next three years. We aim to achieve this by growing our customer base and differentiating ourselves in competitive global markets by providing value added products and services. Investing in state of the art technology, additional skilled staff and further expanding our manufacturing capabilities at Kilrea will help us to achieve this goal.

“Our longstanding relationship with Invest NI has been hugely beneficial and its continued support will help us to underpin our competitive position across the high value automotive, aerospace and materials handling sectors. We aim to build on our success to date and will continue to work closely with academia and industry to ensure a pipeline of fabrication skills in the future.”