OE Electrics (www.oeelectrics.co.uk), a manufacturer and distributor of electrical equipment, has doubled the size of its operations in Wakefield, which will lead to the creation of 144 new jobs.

The company has invested £9 million in OE House, a 66,000ft² energy-efficient facility that was custom-built for the firm at Calder Park, enabling it to double its capacity and diversify into new markets.

The new facility contains the firm’s head office, warehouse, distribution and R&D operations.

The project has received £500,000 of funding from the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership’s Business Growth Programme, plus a loan of £1 million from the Growing Places Fund, which has enabled it to build the new facility to a high energy-saving specification with LED lighting and solar panels.

Group managing director David Masters said: “This investment from the LEP and other sources has not only enabled us to double our operations, it also means we can supply to new sectors.

"We only supplied electrical equipment to offices before, but we can now look at the education, health-care, leisure and passenger transport markets.

“We’re now developing a European distribution network to hopefully expand our operations in this region, and we expect this to be a large area of growth.

"Innovation is something that is really important to us, and we’re launching five new electrical products this year.” Also in the pipeline is an apprenticeship programme that will recruit at least 10 people in the next eight years.