Cable Manufacturer to Create 100 New jobs in Knowsley Expansion Plan

A cable manufacturer will extend its production facility in Knowsley after securing a £3.5m loan from the Chrysalis Fund – creating more than 100 new jobs.

Tratos UK, a subsidiary of an Italian company, already operates from the Knowsley Business Park site supplying mainly low-voltage cables to the power distribution industry.

Its intention is to expand into medium-voltage cables as well as cables for the offshore wind industry and for the UK's expanding railway network.

The Chrysalis loan will help the company to acquire an additional adjacent site in Randles Road for its expansion.  The funding will also support the redevelopment and expansion of the production facilities on site.

Overall, the project will deliver more than 100,000 sq ft of new and refurbished manufacturing capacity.

Chrysalis is a £30m fund, backed by the European Investment Bank, the Homes and Communities Agency  and European Regional Development Fund to assist regeneration projects in the Liverpool city region.

It is managed by the Igloo Consortium, which is made up of Igloo Regeneration, GVA and RBC Capital Markets.

Kevin Martin, finance director at Tratos said: "The redevelopment and expansion of our existing facility not only protects existing jobs, but will assist in regenerating the area and creating more job opportunities."

In addition to the Chrysalis-funded redevelopment of the site, Tratos will make a major investment in new production equipment.

The project is subject to a Regional Growth Fund application and is regarded as a priority regeneration project by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

LEP chair Robert Hough said: "Advanced manufacturing is one of Liverpool city region's success stories. It represents an important opportunity for expansion and new growth that can be supported by the Chrysalis Fund.

"The Tratos UK development is a strong endorsement of our growth plans based on high-value manufacturing in the knowledge economy."

Jim Gill, chair of the Chrysalis Fund, added: "This investment in the expansion of Tratos's production facilities in Knowsley represents an important boost to the manufacturing sector in the city region, creating jobs and building the supply chain for key sector development in the region.

"It is great to see a Knowsley firm with such ambitious expansion plans and we're delighted to facilitate this next step in the company's growth.

"At Chrysalis we want to support industrial and commercial growth across all parts of the city region.

"The Tratos investment comes hot on the heels of our recent £4.8m deal to enable the redevelopment of Watson House in Liverpool city centre.

"We have a number of additional deals in the pipeline which we hope to be in a position to announce before the end of the year."


source wireworld