Covid: Ross-on-Wye masks factory employs those who lost jobs to virus

About 90 people will be employed in the factory in Ross-on-Wye

A new factory making a million medical-grade face masks a day says its workforce includes those who lost their former jobs in the coronavirus pandemic.

Ultrafilter has spent £3.6m realising the site in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, which supplies the NHS.

There are 67 workers, with plans to soon raise the figure to 90.

The chairman said it was "extremely rewarding" the venture employed those disadvantaged by the crisis.

The business wants to see more manufacturing in the UK

Dean Krosbein added that the company, founded in Germany, was "bringing industry back home" with the British site.

He said it was "painful" to see personal protective equipment (PPE) being imported to Britain during the pandemic at a high cost, and felt it "vitally important" to bring manufacturing to the UK.

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The factory at Alton Business Park is using more than 40 years' experience in filtration products to make the masks.

The plant will make about a millions face masks a day

The introduction of a third shift is behind the move to increase the workforce to 90 in about a month.

"The majority of those we have employed from here in Ross-on-Wye are from a minority, they have disabilities, these are people that have lost their former jobs in the crisis," Mr Krosbein said. "It's extremely rewarding."