Workers at a Colchester firm will be taking on new work during the next few months.

Woods Air Movement, one of the town's last major manufacturing firms, was chosen as the Flakt Woods group's centre of excellence for fan production.

The designation, which secure's the Colchester firm's long-term future and may include a new base in the town, meant some axial fan production in Sweden and France will be moved to Colchester.

The shift of work from the Continent to Colchester is now under way.

Steven Knowles, managing director at the Colchester site, said: "The centre of excellence starts straight away and we are now in the process of transferring production from Sweden and France.

"This will progressively take place between now and the beginning of 2003.

"On balance, we expect at this stage to maintain the existing number of manufacturing employees and the extra volume of work transferring to Colchester will help secure existing jobs at a time when there are signs that the market and economy overall will be getting far tighter before it gets any easier."

Published Wednesday October 16, 2002

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