A TRAIN-BUILDER has revealed a deal with a recruitment specialist to find workers for its £82m North-East factory.

Hitachi Rail Europe is working with Quantum to recruit its UK senior management team.

The company's plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, will build more than 860 carriages from 2016 for the Government's Intercity Express Programme.

Its first appointment, as revealed yesterday in The Northern Echo, is HR manager Julia Potts.

Bosses are also now advertising for manufacturing engineers, a quality engineer and a supplier quality engineer, with its first apprentice being trained at Bishop Auckland College.

The plant will employ 730 workers and support hundreds of posts in the North-East's supply chain.

Darren Cumner, Hitachi Aycliffe plant manager, said: “The company places great emphasis on employing locally.

“This plant will ultimately create long-term employment, utilising the highly-skilled workforce in the vicinity, so it's important we ensure a good cultural awareness through the senior leadership team.”

The factory will be built by Darlington-based Shepherd, which will create 150 local construction jobs.