An ailing technology company has won a major contract to supply solenoids to printer specialists Hewlett Packard.
Mechetronics, based in St Helen Auckland, County Durham, will work with a sister company in China to produce 30,000 solenoids a month for the HP Business Inkjet 3000 printer.
The contract, worth more than £0.25m a year, is a significant boost to a company which announced it was laying off 15 staff last month in addition to 19 jobs lost in March.
The work is a continuation of Mechetronics' good relationship with Hewlett Packard built up since the County Durham firm beat rival companies in Japan and Germany to supply the US multi-national.
Mechetronics' partner company Freewood in China will supply the solenoids to an operation in Singapore where the printers are built.
The contract also created extra design and development work in the UK and America. Mitchell Wolfe, Mechetronics managing director, said: "For this solenoid, we worked with the Hewlett Packard design centre in Vancouver, USA, to create the ideal solution to their printer needs.
"We have subsequently transferred production to Singapore where the printers are assembled.
"This contract demonstrates the ability of UK companies to help even the biggest of customers to get the best possible technical and logistics solution for their needs."
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