A NORTH-EAST company is creating lots of new jobs following an investment of £500,000 in robotics at its Bishop Auckland plant.

Ebac, one of Europe's leading manufacturers of water coolers and dehumidifiers, has installed a robot, which means that product mouldings can now be removed from its injection moulding machine more quickly.

The result is a improvement in product quality and quantity - as well as new jobs.

In the last month Ebac has hired more than 100 people and plans to hire more in the future.

Ebac spokeswoman Victoria Wilde said: "We are very very busy and need to make more products due to demand.

"That's why we're hiring more people."

More commonly associated with automotive industry, the robot is part of a huge investment by Ebac in plant machinery. It is initially being used for the production of the chassis and side panels for Ebac's new state-of-the-art water cooler, the E-Max, which has just been launched onto the European market.

"The assembly line itself will not change but use of the robot will allow Ebac to concentrate fully on quality and consistency," said Ebac's manufacturing director Pamela Gilespie. "The use of the latest technology means freeing up the workforce for jobs which really need the human touch.

"We are currently using the robot solely on the E-Max, but our choice of a fully programmable unit will allow for expansion of the robot's functions.

"This process will increase the effectiveness of our manufacturing systems which benefits the workforce and our products."

Last month, Ebac launched a new, innovation home water cooler designed for use with bottled mineral water.

Eddy is the result of two years of market research and is being billed by the company as the most popular new kitchen appliance of the decade.

It was the massive growth in the consumption of bottled water which has led to the development of Eddy. This year alone, more than one billion litres of bottled water will be sold in the UK.