Ballygawley-based Tyrone Fabrication Ltd has announced an investment of £680,000 in an ambitious expansion project, which will create an additional 15 jobs.

The firm aims to increase its turnover to around £9 million by the end of next year, and has received £60,000 support funds from Invest Northern Ireland.

Tyrone Fabrication designs and manufactures a range of high quality cabinets and enclosures to house electronic equipment for telecommunications, transport and energy sectors throughout Europe.

Its products range from small electricity meter enclosures to large relocatable equipment buildings.

As part of this initiative, the company will focus more on markets outside Northern Ireland and extend its production facilities to deal with higher external demand.

It will also recruit additional management staff, concentrating its marketing activities on new markets and undertaking a programme of process improvement.

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Brendan McDermott, Managing Director of Tyrone Fabrication, said: "We are introducing new equipment to our manufacturing processes, which is helping us to provide new solutions for clients, broaden our product range and capitalise on new market opportunities.

"A greater focus on emerging telecoms markets is spurring our growth, whilst we continue to exceed the expectations of our more established customers in transport and energy sectors. We are no longer in the high risk situation of depending on one or two main customers.

"Large multinationals such as 02, Eircom, Nokia-Siemens, Network Rail, Alcatel-Lucent, Irish Broadband and the Department of Communications in the Republic of Ireland are now amongst our expanding client base, and we are constantly looking to new openings in countries such as Holland and Denmark.

"Our internal operations are being streamlined through this project, as we apply lean manufacturing principles and promote an ethos of continuous improvement throughout the organisation. This is also making a significant contribution to our increased profits."

Invest NI has previously helped Tyrone Fabrication with IT and marketing, and continues to provide the company with research and development support to generate new products.

Jeremy Fitch, Invest NI's Managing Director of Business International, said: "This investment demonstrates that Tyrone Fabrication is firmly committed to increasing its competitiveness and realising its full potential by developing an even greater international focus.

"This project is the culmination of several months of collaboration between Invest NI and Tyrone Fabrication."

Fifteen new jobs are being promoted as part of this project, bringing the total employment at Tyrone Fabrication to 73.

(PR/JM)