ALMOST 200 new jobs are to be created after Lanarkshire engineering firm clinched a $1 billion (£780m) contract to provide flight engine parts to a US company.
MB Aerospace, based in Motherwell, said it would recruit 160 new staff as part of the 10-year agreement with Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corporation (UTC).
Chief executive Craig Gallagher said: “We are hugely respectful of the trust placed in us by United Technologies and Pratt & Whitney to support their programs.
“MB Aerospace and UTC already possess a strong working relationship across Pratt & Whitney’s installed base programs, and this contract represents a milestone opportunity for our world class teams to support UTC.
“The MB Aerospace group has already invested more than $50m in machining technology, facilities expansion and in the last year has recruited an additional 100 new full-time employees in support of this growth and ahead of the agreement of this exciting contract.
“Included in our investment in people is a ground-breaking engineering services team of more than 40 technical and programming specialists to support each of our business units from a central hub located in Rzeszow, Poland. We plan to grow this team to at least 100 engineering specialists to support our customers through the intense period of growth facing the industry in the next three to five years.”
Sam Abdelmalek, Pratt & Whitney vice president, said: “We value our long-standing relationship.”
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