Elring Klinger GB (www.elringklinger.de/en/home) is to increase its workforce over the next two years and is targeting investments of up to £8 million in a bid to continue its recent growth.

The Cleveland-based automotive parts manufacturer recently said that it is looking to double its turnover to £35 million by 2019. It opened a 4,000ft2 factory extension last June and invested in a single wind turbine.

Managing director Ian Malcolm (pictured) said: “The £35 million is something to really aim for. We have probably got work worth about £32 million in the pipeline that will take us up to 2018, so there is still a gap.

The challenge is there, and we are going to achieve it. The original goal was to double our turnover between 2012 and 2016; if customers take what they say they will, we will hit that target.

“The wind turbine is up and running, and the target for that is to generate about 60% of the energy needs of the business. You generally have teething problems with this kind of thing, so we reckon it will be about three months before we get a good idea of what it can produce.

"The factory extension has allowed us to invest more to accommodate the growth that we are forecasting over the next five years.

“We are not investing in any additional facilities, now that we have these two up and running, but we will be investing about £8 million in new equipment over the next 12-18 months. To put that into context, we invested about £3 million in equipment during the 10 years up to 2012.

"We set a target of increasing our workforce from 130 to 200 by 2016, but we’ve exceeded that already. While we haven’t set a new target, further recruitment will take place until late 2016.”