A Buoyant New Year Looms for TMD

17/10/2007

The manufacturing industry in the North East is set to have a more lively New Year’s Eve celebration than it first anticipated. TMD Friction, which manufactures brake pads, has announced plans to create almost 70 jobs in the New Year after securing £249,000 from regional development agency One NorthEast.

It is welcome news to an industry that has suffered a number of set-backs in recent times. Last week, US microchip maker Atmel announced it would close its plant in North Tyneside
in the New Year, resulting in the loss of 600 jobs.

Many TMD workers, indeed, thought they would be spending New Year’s Eve 2007 looking for work elsewhere: earlier this year, the company opened a new plant in Romania, sparking fears they were embarking on an off-shoring strategy that would result in UK job losses.

TMD, however, insists that it has no long-term strategy to transfer its production from Hartlepool to the Eastern Bloc. UK managing director Gerard Doyle said: “As a result of our growth, we are currently working alongside our parent company to potentially bring recently relocated work into the Hartlepool plant rather than going overseas.”

The One NorthEast money will go towards TMD’s planned £2m investment into three new presses which will increase the plant’s annual production capacity from 20 million brake pads by New Year’s Eve 2007 to 25 million by the end of 2008.