There's a multi-million pound export sales boost on the way for a Co Tyrone building sector manufacturer.

The NI Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster has just announced the £8m export fillip for Yardmaster International in Draperstown.

The company produces flat pack metal garden sheds and garages and secured the new business in its key markets of Europe and the UK over the past 12 months.

Invest Northern Ireland provided support to help Yardmaster review its manufacturing processes and identify areas which could be improved to make the business even more efficient. Over the past year the company has incorporated a series of lean manufacturing techniques into its operations.

Arlene Foster said: "Yardmaster's drive to improve its productivity has delivered significant results to date. The firm's proactive and enthusiastic approach to this project has helped it to achieve efficiencies and grow sales.

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"By optimising how the company uses existing resources Yardmaster has been able to double the number of sheds produced per week. Embedding lean principles throughout the entire company will continue to benefit Yardmaster's bottom line moving forward."

Willie McKeown, Managing Director at Yardmaster International, added: "Implementing lean manufacturing techniques into our operations has made an immediate and positive impact to our overall business performance. Working with Invest NI helped us to recognise the benefits we could gain by focusing on productivity improvement.

"We plan to further increase production and will continue to focus on improving our processes in order to maximise efficiencies, free up time to progress research and development on next generation products and maintain a strong competitive position in export markets."

The Minister concluded: "Businesses today face many pressures and in order to survive and grow, they must respond and take steps to become more efficient, flexible and at the same time reduce costs.

"This is an excellent example of how Invest NI can support companies by helping them to review productivity levels and identify areas for improvement."

(BMcC)