A HISTORIC Cleobury Mortimer firm is celebrating a landmark birthday in style by securing an additional £500,000 in sales that will help create new jobs.

Sub contract machinists Muller Holdings, which also has sites in Redditch, South Wales and Wednesbury, is marking its 90th anniversary in business this year.

And it has been given a major birthday present after landing new contracts for automative work, smart gas meters and producing parts for the ‘Gripit’ building product.

Bosses said they expect to boost their current 150-strong workforce by 10 per cent by the end of the year.

The company has withstood a number of recessions over the last nine decades and was a key supplier to the Second World War effort, where it relocated from London to Shropshire to avoid further air strikes during the Blitz.

Today, it specialises in CNC milling, turning, multi-spindle and CNC/Conventional escomatic manufacturing services, with its components ending up in the best selling cars in the world, in dental products and appliances that keep homes and factories warm.

Managing director Paul Bethell said: “90 years of manufacturing is some achievement and we have a colourful history, from starting life owned by the Swiss and supplying the Ministry of Defence, to becoming Cleobury Mortimer’s largest employer and forging an exciting joint venture in India.

“Our business has been based on technical excellence and providing precision machining solutions and these two attributes have remained constant despite the changing economic and industrial picture.”

He added: “Whilst we are very proud of our history, the focus now is on the next nine decades and the first half of 2017 have been very good for all of our four sites in the UK.

“Turnover has increased across our key markets and our pipeline of enquiries has definitely received a boost from the drop in the price of Sterling.

“Our workforce stands at 150, but we expect this to grow by about 10 per cent between now and the end of the year.

“These positions will be experienced manufacturing professionals and the possibility of employing more apprentices.”

Adam Cunningham, who is director at Muller Redditch, said: “The last two years have seen more than £850,000 of investment in new machinery, a sort of early birthday present to ourselves.

“As part of this, we have increased our escomatic and multi-spindle capacity by 10 per cent and we will shortly be installing high-speed visual inspection equipment to ensure we offer world class quality to our customers.

“This is designed to give us the necessary capacity and competitive advantage to go after our three year-plan to be at £16m turnover by 2020.”

Muller Holdings is part of the Midlands Assembly Network, a nine-strong group of sub-contract manufacturers who work together to win orders and share best practice and resource.