AN ENGINEERING equipment repair firm hopes to create North-East jobs in a £4.5m expansion.

Sulzer says it wants to strengthen its regional workforce after moving to Middlesbrough’s Riverside Industrial Estate.

The company has switched to a larger service centre, which includes a metal spraying and testing area that bosses say will help deliver more projects across the marine, offshore, renewable and power sectors.

The Swiss-headquartered company specialises in mechanical repairs to equipment, as well as servicing motors, pumps and generators, and work on drive and control systems.

It employs more than 40 staff in Middlesbrough, but told The Northern Echo it aims to increase that number as it settles into its new site in the town’s Middlehaven area.

A spokesman said: “With the expansion, we would like to create more job opportunities.

“Moving has enabled us to demonstrate commitment to the North-East, because the expansion means the site it 25 per cent bigger and has allowed us to create the metal spraying and testing facilities.”

“Our previous base was in Lower East Street, and was the final engineering business in the area.

“But it would have been isolated and disruptive to the new occupants had it remained.”

The firm’s new service centre will be officially opened by The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, on Monday, March 23.

Middlesbrough Council and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), which is responsible for the regeneration project, have partly funded the company’s move, and Sulzer officials have praised the effect of the Middlehaven development on the town.

The spokesman added: “Middlehaven is at the historic heart and driving force of a strong local industry, and its re-development creates a fantastic opportunity to attract inward investment.”

Founded in 1834, Sulzer began producing cast iron, as well as firefighting pumps and textile machinery.

It now has sites across the work, including bases in Brazil, China, Germany and Mexico.