A SUCCESSFUL Bolton company is recruiting against the national trend of increasing job losses. Gloom in the manufacturing industry is not shared by the management and staff at Indespension Ltd in Belmont Road. Managing Director Heidi Riley said: "In the last two weeks we have recruited around 10 new direct production staff and are looking to employ a further 10-12 in various areas, specifically machine operators, welders and trailer builders."

She said they also had a couple of administration vacancies and were always on the lookout for suitable management trainees for the company's expanding retail network which includes four new UK branches in Cardiff, Stoke, Scunthorpe and Blackburn.

But she added: "Recruitment in our field has become more and more difficult over the last few years - fewer and fewer people seem to be looking towards engineering as a career path and we find this very disappointing."

Train

They were, however, willing to train people in all areas and were keen to encourage anyone with experience who had taken early retirement.

Indespension, which describes itself as "the national trailer company", has had a number of significant bulk orders recently from local authorities and public utilities.

They include Aberdeen County Council (45 trailers - £80,000), Suffolk County Council (six trailers - £15,000) and Transco (mini excavator trailers - £20,000).

"All in all we are some 15 per cent up on the order intake for this time last year," Heidi Riley said.

She said everyone at the Bolton factory was working overtime to meet demand.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.