A North Wales aerospace manufacturer is gearing up for global order growth and job expansion following investment in a new larger factory.
Continental Diamond Tool (CDT), has relocated to a new 30,000 sq ft factory in Kinmel Bay. Its new facility is nearly three times the size of its old premises less than half a mile away on the Tir Llwyd Industrial Estate.
The move is part of a £4m expansion by the company which custom engineers ultra-precise industrial tooling for the aerospace, automotive and oil and gas sectors. Blue chip customers include Rolls Royce, Airbus and Tenneco.
Its international orders are growing and the company now has the ability to manufacture five times as many large parts per day and thousands of small parts per week, many destined for the oil and gas industry.
Originally established as Consort Precision Diamond in 1984, the company was acquired and rebranded by American-owned Continental Diamond Tool in 2018. Production manager Justin Hughes, whose father, Peter, was a founding member of the business, said the move marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the company. He said: “There is a new ambition along with the investment. The future is bright.”
With 46 staff currently on site, the company now plans to grow the workforce to around 80 employees over the next two years, with a major recruitment and investment push underway — particularly in the electro-plating department.
Mr Hughes said : “We could only fit 14 electro-plating tanks in our old premises. “Here we can accommodate up to 200. It’s the perfect environment – less humid, well-ventilated, and much more comfortable for staff. We used to have to turn away orders because we just didn’t have the capacity,
Now we can meet that demand — and electro-plated products are on course to become the biggest part of our business.”
The company is also expanding into Poland as it looks to drive orders in eastern Europe.
