FG Wilson invest in £5m machinery upgrade

FG Wilson has announced a £5m investment in production

County Antrim engineering firm FG Wilson has announced a multi-million pound investment aimed at speeding up its production process.

FG Wilson, a subsidiary of the American firm Caterpillar, employs around 3,000 people in Northern Ireland making diesel generating sets, which are exported to markets around the world.

It has invested £5m in a new state-of-the-art production line which operates at roughly twice the speed of the existing facility.

Managing director Mark Sweeney said that the investment marked the first stage in an "large-scale upgrade "of the entire production process.

In July the company announced it was to recruit 300 new members of staff this year.

Demand for the company's generators fell by 40% during the recession, and there were over 900 voluntary redundancies.