EVERYONE suspected the good news - that when Dowding & Mills Engineering Services eventually moves into its spanking new £5 million purpose-built factory in Clifton Moor this spring it will mean more jobs.

After all, the new plant in Amy Johnson Way, to which 76 staff, including management and sales teams will transfer, is more than a third bigger than its existing 30,000sq ft Hull Road premises and logic suggested expansion.

But now, as the new facility, wholly designed and built by Thirsk-based Severfield-Reeve Projects, takes impressive shape on the other side of the fence to Warner Cinemas, that expectation has been confirmed.

Extra staff will be needed, especially skilled jobs, says the company, although at this stage it is hard to pinpoint the figures. What is more the new factory could become the fount of new skills training for the region.

Dowding & Mills, York, part of a global business with 2,400 staff and a £135 million turnover, will be moving all its existing machinery to the new site. Plans for future investment include a new computer-controlled floor borer and other CNC machinery including lathes and milling machines which will allow a greater range of work to be carried out on-site for customers.

The York branch of Dowding & Mills, which operates 24 hours a day, seven-days a week, started on Bootham Row, York as Bootham Engineers in 1932 and has expanded steadily since 1970.

Derrick Arden, Dowding & Mills' UK regions managing director, said: "We are confident that the new, larger premises and improved capabilities will attract more work. This, and a general increase in our existing work from recent re-structuring, means that we expect to recruit more skilled staff.

"This will include people with experience on CNC machines and those able to carry out a wide range of work at our customers' factories including condition monitoring, and electrical and mechanical equipment repairs.

"We envisage the new site as a centre of excellence for the full range of Dowding & Mills' integrated engineering services. In line with this strategy we will, in time, expect to introduce further capabilities such as an electronics repair facility, the capacity to handle, stock and remanufacture refrigeration and air conditioning compressors as well as supply and service security gates and barriers."

Another "exciting venture" as he describes it, is a plan to set up a Dowding & Mills Training Centre which will complement training available locally and will focus on courses for its own apprentices, sales and managerial staff as well as those from other companies.

Part of the move will also include an additional high-bay workshop which will give Dowding & Mills a 63-tonne lifting capability, almost doubling its capacity and a significant increase in the working height underneath the crane.

This should prove a boon considering that the Dowding & Mills customer base covers the full spectrum of local and multi-national businesses including confectioners, food processing, and leisure, automotive, quarrying and mining.

All of these have plant and machinery requiring the specialist repairs or refurbishment services for which the group is renowned.

Updated: 12:25 Tuesday, January 22, 2002