Firm creates 10 new jobs

A Carrick firm is almost doubling its workforce as part of strategic growth plans supported by Invest Northern Ireland.
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Family business Woodburn Engineering is creating 10 new jobs and investing in additional machinery and marketing in a bid to secure new tender opportunities in Great Britain, particularly in the infrastructure and ports sector.

The company specialises in the fabrication of light and heavy steelwork and its associated site installation.

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Speaking about the expansion, managing director Tony Cowan said: “This investment is a significant development for the business that will enable us to target and secure new high value projects outside of Northern Ireland.

“We have seen an upturn in Great Britain’s construction sector and bolstering our management and production teams is giving us greater in house technical expertise and resources to deliver more complex engineering projects.

“Invest NI’s support is helping us to position ourselves to compete for new business. We have already seen the fruits of our efforts, securing contracts with Glasgow and Chesterfield City Councils valued at £2million.”

Tony added: “We want to raise greater awareness of our unique engineering capability in the technical specification and design of road, rail/water and pedestrian bridges and motorway signal gantries. Our recent successes in Great Britain will hopefully help to leverage future sales in our target sectors.”

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Invest NI has offered Woodburn Engineering £45,000 support towards its growth plans.

The ten new roles, six of which are already in place, include a production supervisor, contracts manager, draughtsman and seven skilled welders.

Moira Loughran, Invest NI’s eastern regional manager said: “Woodburn Engineering is an established and valued business in Carrickfergus and its development demonstrates the company’s confidence in achieving its growth potential outside Northern Ireland.

“The ten new skilled construction jobs being created have salaries above the private sector median and once all in pace will generate over £306,000 annually in additional salaries to the local economy.”

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Woodburn Engineering has evolved from manufacturing machined components for the textile industry 30 years ago to end to end steel fabrication.

The expansion will bring total employment at the company to 26.