A Portglenone company is investing £1.7m to develop sales of a new range of fire doors in Great Britain.

Essential Designs (NI) Ltd is also planning to move to a new and purpose-built 31,000sq ft factory at Creagh Industrial Estate, Toombridge soon, which is being assisted by Invest Northern Ireland.

This planned expansion is expected to create 14 new permanent full time jobs, including 10 highly skilled posts, over the next two years and will bring the company’s total employment to 30.

Oliver Higgins, Managing Director of Essential Designs, announced the investment plan and said that Invest NI has assisted the company through a range of programmes including the Business Health check, strategic development, management information systems and consultancy support to include assistance in acquiring ISO 9001-2000 accreditation.

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The company has extensive joinery manufacturing experience in areas such as shop fitting, reception counters, food serving counters and wall panelling.

Outlining the expansion plans, Mr Higgins said: "The decision to diversify into flush fire door sets follows extensive market research that followed the identification of an initial business opportunity highlighted by contacts in Scotland and England. The fact that we will provide a full fire certificate and labels for the full fire door set will also be a great selling point for the company in these markets."

Mr Higgins continued: "It's a logical extension of our existing and longstanding expertise in a broad range of joinery products for commercial and industrial clients in both the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain. Our projections suggest that the new product could contribute a substantial proportion of the growth in export sales that we expect over the next few years."

"Invest NI's advice and support has been invaluable in areas such as strategic planning, marketing and technology. Invest NI has helped us to bring this expansion forward much faster than would otherwise have been possible had it not been so readily available," he added.

(JM)