Teesside Cast Products (TCP) has created its first 27 jobs (From The Northern Echo)

Teesside Cast Products (TCP) has created its first 27 jobs

8:35am Saturday 13th March 2010 in

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AN aid package designed to generate new employment in the Tees Valley after the partial mothballing of Corus Teesside Cast Products (TCP) has created its first 27 jobs.

The grant to PD&MS Energy (Teesside) Ltd is the first from the £60m Tees Valley Industrial Programme (TVIP), announced by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson in December.

It was awarded within a week of the company’s application first being submitted.

The firm, specialising in engineering design and draughting for the offshore industry, has received £185,000, which will enable it to expand its operations at Stockton and create 27 jobs over the next two years.

Managing director Andrew Stevenson said: “Key to the critical success of this venture is attracting the right calibre of staff, with this funding giving the company the confidence to recruit and bring into the business a large number of talented individuals.”

The company is preparing bids for several multi-millionpound projects, the contracts for which will be awarded in the next year.

PD&MS Energy is owned by the Port Clarence-based Wilton Group, which employs 250 people in the Tees Valley, and opened its Teesside office last year.

The firm has already won its first large-scale design and manufacturing project, along with smaller contracts.

The grant was awarded through regional development agency One North East, which has funded £30m of the TVIP programme, with the rest coming from the Government.

The fund was created to help fill the jobs void that will be left by TCP should a buyer not be found and all 1,600 workers are made redundant.

The importance of companies such as PD&MS Energy creating specialist jobs is that they are likely to be in a similar wage bracket to the jobs that could go at TCP, with steelworkers earning in the region of £30,000 to £40,000 with shift payments.

Chief executive Alan Clarke said: “TVIP was created to accelerate job prospects as a direct result of the partial mothballing of Teesside Cast Products and it is excellent to see the fund proving a success just two months after it was created.

“PD&MS Energy (Teesside) will service a range of regional growth industries, such as oil and gas, offshore renewable, nuclear, petrochemical an heavy industries, and with an exceptional average salary these are excellent high-quality jobs.”