The company is actively recruiting now and will take on a further 80 people during 2013, making it one of Europe’s largest composites specialists with close to 200 employed in its manufacturing operations. The recruitment drive follows the award of significant new business from the automotive, aerospace and defence sectors. These include the supply of cosmetic and large structural components for a new European supercar and highly specialist applications such as components for a space telescope. Prodrive has already increased the factory’s floor area to more than 3,000m2 after winning contracts for high quality trim components from three premium vehicle manufacturers and is already planning a further phase of expansion. Recruitment is a serious business at Prodrive. Composites manager Ian Handscombe explained: “We are making big investments to increase the efficiency of what are, essentially, craft processes but we still need our people to have very high skill levels. Our training programme is based on capturing the skills of the best people in the industry and transferring them to newcomers to our business. Our recruits will have the chance to work alongside some of the world’s foremost experts in producing composite components for super cars and Formula One.” www.prodrive.com
