FOURTEEN new jobs have been created at Darwen’s WEC Group.

The recruitment drive at the engineering and fabrication firm comes as the company secured a £6million aerospace contract for an Airbus assembly factory in Germany.

However, not all the positions are in relation to the aerospace order.

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The company also has 26 other vacancies across its sites in Yorkshire, Merseyside and the West Midlands.

Glyn Jones, engineering sales manager, said the 18-month contract would enable growth.

He said: “We won this work based on our extensive range of state-of-the-art technology and our commitment to quality.

“The new contract will enable us to continue building our order book in the aviation, space and defence industries.

“The contract is a major boost for the company.”

One of the vacancies in Darwen is an installation contract manager which requires working in Hamburg for seven months as part of the contract.

WEC has been heavily involved with the aerospace industry supplying jigs and fixtures to various aircraft assembly facilities across the world.

The recruitment drive follows an 80 per cent increase in staff numbers over the past 18 months with the company now employing more than 800 staff across its sites.

The company employs more than 150 welders and has made investments in the latest robotic welding and heavy machining technology over the past few years improving manufacturing speed, accuracy and repeatability.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, director of WEC machining, said: “We have identified key areas as part of our ambitious growth strategy, and aerospace is a sector where we can now make great progress as we are ideally located in the centre of the North’s aerospace manufacturing hub.”

The group has made more than £11million of investment throughout the company over the past year.

This includes investments in state-of-the-art equipment such as a fully-automated laser cutting machine, waterjet cutting technology and computer numerical control machining.

Cllr Brian Taylor, leader of Darwen Town Council, said: “This is great news for residents in Darwen.”

“I’m very grateful this positions have been made and I hope to see Darwen people taking them up.”