UK carbon fiber composites manufacturer Prodrive Composites has secured a £6 million growth capital investment from BGF (Business Growth Fund).
Prodrive Composites employs nearly 200 people will sales of£13 million last year and is on course to grow to more than £15 million at the end of this financial year. The business has seen significant growth in the past two years with new significant contracts in the automotive and aerospace sectors, it says. In the past 18 months it has achieved significant capacity improvements, reducing the cycle time from raw material to finished parts from an average of six to eight weeks down to two weeks.
As part of the investment, John Weston, former CEO of BAE Systems, joins the company as non-executive chairman. Weston has spent 32 years in the aerospace and defense industry and now works to support a number of small companies in the high technology and manufacturing fields including as chairman of Torotrak and FibreCore.
‘The demand for carbon fiber composites is on a clear upwards trajectory and Prodrive Composites has the legacy, ambition and customer base to really capitalize on that,’ said Ian Downing, investor, BGF. 'We are looking forward becoming a junior stakeholder in the business, alongside Prodrive Holdings.’
This story is reprinted from material from Prodrive, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
