FIFTY Welshpool jobs have been safeguarded after troubled car parts manufacturers Trax JH Limited landed a £4million contract.
The Severn Farm Industrial Estate-based company has won the huge contract to supply car giant Renault with wheel balance weights.
And the news will be celebrated by staff whose jobs have been under threat since the company downsized – at one time the firm employed over 100 people.
Trax has scooped a new four-year contract to supply the zinc weights to the French car maker with the products fitted to Renault and Dacia cars made in France,
Spain, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, India, Columbia, Brazil and Argentina.
The company initially won the right to supply Renault in an online tendering process eight years ago, and has since been in the process of developing its products to fit the new specification.
Managing director John Hallé said the deal was a major step forward for Trax in developing its car company business, with other contracts now also in the pipeline.
He said: “This is welcome news, and it’s a secure bit of business.The company is particularly pleased to be supplying the growth markets of Brazil, Russia and India.”
Renault’s deal, which will come on stream by the end of the year, helps reverse a difficult year in which low prices in Europe, cheap imports from China, and the economic downturn have led to tough times.
Trax has benefited from support through HSBC bank and Finance Wales to bring the latest contract to fruition.
Mr Hallé established Trax in 1989, in Milton Keynes, but the company was forced into receivership at the start of the 1990s.
The company’s assets were bought by Welshpool-based Proform, and Mr Hallé bought the company back in 1993, setting up premises in Welshpool.
Balancing weights were formerly made from lead, but after a European directive, they are now made of zinc.