LUTON, ENGLAND — Automotive parts and industrial container molder T&D Industries plc is investing more than L22.5 million ($36.5 million) to expand its car component and other custom molding capacity.
The biggest chunk of the investment is focused on building a second injection molding plant at Luton, England. The Luton plant, which will create 190 new jobs, is scheduled to start up by mid-1999.
Bradford, England-based T&D built its first car component plant to make painted plastic bumpers at Luton in 1995, to serve General Motors Corp.'s British subsidiary Vauxhall Motors plc.
That plant since has expanded to make a range of exterior and interior plastic components, according to London-based Burdale Financial Ltd., which has provided T&D with the latest investment financing package.
``The funding package ... will enable T&D to meet the exciting opportunities being presented to us in both the automotive components sector as well as in our core packaging and plastic molding operations,'' said T&D's group chief executive Nick Breare.
T&D, with northern England plants at Rotherham, Wakefield and Liverpool, and another at Bridgend, Wales, also manufactures plastic waste containers, including wheeled bins, intermediate bulk containers, metal drums and other products for the home and garden and building sectors.
Its subsidiary divisions include T&D Automotive in Luton, T&D Plastech, with rotational molding production at Rotherham; wheeled bin molder MGB Randall Ltd. in Wakefield; and T&D Bison, the IBC manufacturer; as well as a metals division.
The group, with sales in 1998 of more than L75 million ($121 million), employs a total of 1,200.