Livestock firm planning £15m expansion to create 50 jobs

AROUND 50 new jobs are being created at a manufacturer as part of £15million expansion plans.

IAE manufactures livestock handling equipment, equestrian stabling, steel fencing and shelters.

The company currently employs around 450 staff which are based across two sites in Adderley Green and Cheadle.

Now IAE is looking to bring all of its workforce onto one site with ambitious plans to expand its 38-acre headquarters - and create dozens of new jobs in the process.

The development will see a new manufacturing unit, a separate powder coating plant and a visitor centre constructed at the company’s Mossfield Road site.

Managing director

Frank Klucznik – whose grandfather launched the company in 1969 – said: “The development site is a former colliery which we bought in 2014. We have spent the last two years undertaking some major remediation work, but now we are ready to progress.

“Our plans include a purpose-built factory, to expand our manufacturing capacity, and a visitor centre which will double up as a training facility for our staff and apprentices.

“The second phase will see a new powder coating factory built at the bottom end of the site. We currently out-source all of our powder coating work to Manchester and Leeds, but the new building will mean we can bring that in-house.”

Frank added: “When I joined the business in 1999 we were operating across six sites in Leek, Milton, Cheadle and Adderley Green and we had about 200 employees.

“It was always the dream to bring everyone onto one site and it’s really exciting to know that it’s finally happening.

“The 40-odd staff we have based in Cheadle are aware of our vision and are onboard with what we are doing here.”

IAE expects the first phase of the expansion to be completed before the end of the year.

The second phase of the development will include the construction of the new powder coating plant.

Click here to sign up to the daily Businesslive emailfrank said: “Covid-19 has been challenging for us. We closed the business for about four weeks in March last year and we initially saw a big downturn.

“But by June the demand for our products steadily started to increase and I am pleased to say that we are now back to pre-pandemic levels.”