A Merseyside firm making brake discs for supercars has won a major new contract - and revealed its new manufacturing strategy.
Surface Transforms said it has been selected as a tier one supplier of a carbon ceramic brake disc to an existing "mainstream customer" worth €5m spread over the five years - from 2024 to 2028.
CEO Kevin Johnson said the contract is the first example of the implementation of the multi-year "carry over" agreement with the manufacturer at the time of the initial contract award in July 2019.
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The firm also today announced a new manufacturing strategy following "extensive" discussions and analysis.
It said the new strategy will see it save around £10m in equipping the entire Knowsley factory - as well as increasing its 2023 sales capacity by £15m per year from £35m to £50m.
It will also reduce implementation time for equipping the site by 18 months - and "significantly increase capacity implementation flexibility" beyond 2022.
Mr Johnson added: "At the time of the fund raising we said that we thought there could be sufficient demand to fill the Knowsley factory by 2025, albeit the sales were then, and are still now, only partially contracted.
"Our continuing discussions with existing and potential customers together with increasingly encouraging test results have not only lifted our confidence in this view but led us to the conclusion that we may require this capacity by 2024.
"This new manufacturing strategy will achieve the primary capacity objective with the added benefit of reducing overall capital expenditure.
"There are numerous positive cash implications, and we continue to work with our customers to convert the significant number of active projects into firm agreements to fill this capacity."
The firm said the primary objective remains to provide a factory with sales capacity of £75m per year.
The new strategy means the company will no longer build separate production cells but approach the project as a plant-wide "single production line" project.
The firm will now procure a smaller number of larger furnaces to support the sales capacity target.
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