AN engineering firm hopes to create jobs in a North-East expansion.

Haden Freeman, which has offices at Wilton, near Redcar, told The Northern Echo it wants to grow its regional presence after securing work with major employers.

The design and project management company has helped Wilton-based Applied Graphene Materials, which makes graphene that can conduct electricity a million times better than copper, increase production at its plant.

It has also supported family-owned chemical firm Thomas Swan and Co, in Consett, County Durham, with safety on reactors, and worked with Redcar steel maker SSI UK on water systems for a proposed new caster, which bosses say would ease a bottleneck between the huge amounts of iron made by its blast furnace.

Wayne Baxter, Haden Freeman managing director, said its plans mirrored a similar venture on the south coast.

He said: “We have opened a small office in Wilton with six or seven people there, but are talking about expanding that.

“We plan to grow and as we do that we will take more people on.

“About five years ago we opened an office on the south coast, which is in a smaller area and doesn’t have as much industry as the North-East.

“We have built that up to 20 people and our intention is to take on local workers here too.

“Our North-East business has gone from strength-to-strength, largely as a result of ambitious investment and expansion from some of the biggest manufacturers in the region.

“That is helping cement the North-East’s reputation as an engineering and manufacturing powerhouse, recognisable on a global scale, and we’re excited to be part of that.”

However, despite the positivity, Mr Baxter warned the sector must do more to close the skills gap, highlighting the South Durham University Technical College (UTC), which will be built in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, as a perfect platform for such work.

He added: “There is a lot of grey hair in the industry.

“It is a serious problem and we are very keen on getting the youngsters in because they are valuable for companies.

“We need to train them up for the future because there is a real risk the on-going skills gap could have a detrimental impact on industry growth.

“Developments like the UTC will go a long way to combating that gap, but it’s still vital firms tap into the imagination of up and coming talented engineers.

“We have taken on an apprentice studying towards a HND in Mechanical Engineering who is proving a real asset to the team.”

Founded in 1984 as Freeman Process Systems to provide consultancy for the chemical industry, Haden Freeman has further offices in Manchester and Qatar.