A REDDITCH sheet metal specialist is planning to almost double its turnover after making one of the biggest investments in its history.

Birmingham Prototypes Limited (BPL), which was founded by Mick Adams in 2004, has spent £1.2m on a 5,000 sq ft extension of its Redditch factory and the installation of a state-of-the-art TRUMPF 7040 5-axis fibre laser cutter.

The investment has seen the company add three new people to its 16-strong workforce while more new recruits are planned for later in the year.

And bosses believe annual sales will grow by £2m thanks to the new capacity.

One of the first of its type to be installed in the UK, the machine gives the growing company the ability to offer a full turnkey solution for automotive and aerospace customers looking for prototype components and low volume production.

Mr Adams said: “We have a long history of producing parts that require 5-axis laser cutting, but with increased scheduling and quality issues associated with sub-contracting out the process, we realised the time was right to bring the full manufacturing process in-house.

“This gives us greater control, the ability to turnaround customer requests quicker, not to mention new capacity to go after new work - vital if we are looking to grow over the next five years.”

He added: “Automotive and aerospace are our two main markets. However we also have clients involved in rail, defence, medical and energy sectors.

“Our full range of expertise spans tooling design and manufacture, press work, fabrication, assembly and general sheet metal working.”

“The laser gives us a new service that we didn’t offer before, giving our customers a full turnkey solution for outsourcing prototype and low-volume production sheet metal engineering.”