A County Antrim carpet company has announced a multi-million pound technology investment at its Portadown factory, which will also bring new jobs.

Ulster Carpets supplies carpets to luxury hotels and casinos throughout the world. The £15m investment will see an additional 20 staff taken on with the introduction of a revolutionary weaving system. There are currently 400 employed at the 39,000 square feet factory.

The new PSYLO system will reduce the traditional carpet looms, which have 10,000 small bobbins to build the carpet, to 1,000 larger cones. This will lead to a 90% reduction in both set-up time and waste.

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The current loom used only allows 12 colours to be used. However the introduction of the PSYLO system will use up to 25.

Ulster Carpets' Managing Director, Nick Coburn, said: "Our rivals use technology based on a 200-year-old design, this new system means that we can make carpets of a quality nobody else can match – and the savings we make in efficiency mean that we can beat off competition from the Far East."

He continued: "We've invested heavily in research and development – now we're seeing that investment pay off. Nobody else in the world can do what we do."

The family-owned company won the Queen's Award for Innovations with its worldwide-patented technology last year.

(JM/KMcA)