WITHIN just ten months of opening a new production facility at the former CompAir Holman site in Camborne, world-class automotive engineering company Quaife, has announced a further expansion.

It has invested a quarter of a million pounds in new machinery and taken on extra staff thanks to a multi-million pound contact win with General Motors.

Quaife Engineering, based at Sevenoaks in Kent, is a globally renowned transmission manufacturer for the motor industry and has already doubled its production capacity by opening up a facility in Cornwall in December 2003.

In Camborne, 17 men, many of which are former CompAir Holman employees, currently work for Quaife Engineering in shifts to enable production to take place 24-hours a day. The new two-year contract to produce gearboxes for General Motors has led to the creation of four new jobs.

1,200 differentials a month are currently produced by Quaife in Camborne for Damlier-Crysler. The company have invested £250,000 in a new Gleason CNC gear hobbing machine to treble the production of gearbox differentials made at the plant so that the company can fulfil more orders, including the new contact for General Motors to produce 500 units a month.

Mike Quaife, director of Quaife Engineering, said: "We have had a fantastic first year with our production facility in Camborne and our latest contract win with General Motors coupled with our investment in new machinery is helping to secure our long-term future in Cornwall.

"We are receiving enquiries from all over the world for our products, so I have great expectations that we'll soon be able to win more contracts and expand our Camborne workforce further."

Tim Williams, chief executive of CPR Regeneration, which attracted the company to the site almost a year ago said: "Camborne has a proud tradition of engineering and I'm delighted this didn't come to an end last year when CompAir Holman closed. Quaife has brought a much needed boost to skilled employment in the area and I wish them every success on building on their achievements for a bright future in Cornwall."