£1.5m expansion by Newtown firm results in new orders and new jobs

The RMGroup which design and manufacture a wide range of automated robotic packaging machinery and  process systems – is expanding and investing £1.5m in a new facility, creating and safeguarding more than forty jobs in Newtown.

The investment, supported by £300,000 from the Welsh Government, has already resulted in the company winning two major contracts to design and install handling and packaging systems for  blue-chip companies in the  food sector – a new target market for the Group – as well as a major contract in India.

The business, founded by Director Edward Rees in 1995, has grown to become one of the UK’s most successful packaging machinery businesses although its growth potential was stifled by the lack of space at their premises which were operating at full capacity.

Since acquiring the 37,000 sq ft factory on Mochdre Industrial Estate and investing in new plant and equipment the company has already achieved its sales targets two years ahead of schedule and created eight new jobs.

Welsh Government support, which ensured the expansion went ahead in Mid Wales, will help create seventeen highly skilled engineering jobs and safeguard a further 24.

Economy Minister Edwina Hart said; “It’s really good news to hear how this company is already reaping the benefits of investing in a new facility and winning new business and creating jobs and I am delighted Welsh Government support enabled this to go ahead.”

Edward Rees said: “Acquiring a larger unit was crucial for our growth and as soon as we knew we had support from the Welsh Government we were able to take on more projects. It is an exciting time, with a lot of opportunities out there now that we have this additional capacity.

“The new unit will enable us to increase production, bring some work in-house that is currently outsourced, allow us to develop some new systems and refurbish and re-programme more used packaging machinery which is a growing market.

“We want to recruit more people with the right skills and I have been talking to local colleges about our skills requirements. Our engineers are highly skilled and we invest a lot of time training them to deal with the complexities of manufacturing such a wide range of bespoke sophisticated systems with each machine tailored to the individual needs of our customers.”

The company is currently developing an innovative new system with a number of unique features for packaging fine powders which is being supported with R&D funding through the Welsh Government Smart Cymru programme.

The group has four divisions – machinery sales – including refurbished equipment, servicing and parts, machinery hire and contract packaging.

It was the first company to design and make a fully automated mobile packaging system to bag products at source, cutting the time cost and carbon footprint  of companies . These are now sold in the UK and Europe and used to carry out contract packaging.

The Group currently supply packaging machinery to the aggregate, coal, salt and animal feed industries and making in-roads into the food sector.