A north Essex engineering company is following up its most successful year ever with a significant investments to increase its manufacturing capabilities.

Maycast-Nokes Precision Engineering, which is based in Factory Lane West in Halstead, generated record annual turnover of £6.5million during in 2015 and also created a number of new jobs.

Now, the company is hoping for an even more successful trading period after investing heavily in new equipment and machinery.

Maycast-Nokes specialises in the manufacture of high quality precision castings.

The company’s final inspection and despatch department is undergoing a £70,000 upgrade which includes the purchase of a new x-ray tube, generator and controller. These developments will lead to increased capacity and shorter manufacturing lead times.

However, a bigger investment still is being made in a £150,000 Haas Universal Machining Centre, a high-tech piece of equipment which has a 12,000 RPM (revolutions per minute) spindle with simultaneous 5-axis capability.

Not only will the machining centre increase productivity, it will provide programmers with the means to machine ever more complex parts.

Dave Blower, sales director at Maycast-Nokes, said: “We hope 2016 will be even more successful than last year and the current indications are positive.

“Continual improvement has always been at the heart of our activities. The latest investments show our continued commitment to enhancing our capabilities and increasing our capacity to supply fully machined castings into the aerospace, defence and engineering sectors.”