Firms’ success brings scores of jobs to town

AROUND 150 jobs are being created in Washington after two companies announced investments into the town.

Food packaging manufacturer PFF has created more than 100 jobs and invested £2m after diversifying to create PPE for frontline NHS workers,

PFF Group has expanded its business over the last few months after winning a contract to supply 360m disposable polythene aprons to NHS staff and social care workers.

The contract was issued by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and led to PFF investing £2m into custom-built machines that allow it to produce the aprons much faster.

The firm has also invested in four new machines that will fold the polythene before it is fed into the apron manufacturing machine.

PFF is based in Keighley, West Yorkshire, but has a major manufacturing site in Washington, where the new machines are being installed.

An extra 100 members of staff have been brought in for the duration of the contract, allowing the factory to ramp up production to 24 hours a day.

Kenton Robbins of PFF Group said: “In just six months, in the midst of a pandemic and while continuing to support the UK’s food retail sector through the production and supply of food packaging...we have been able to design and build two innovative, all-British machines that are the fastest and most reliable in the world, enabling us to significantly increase production.”

Meanwhile, Griffith Textile Machines is aiming to double its 46-strong workforce after expanding premises at Pattinson Industrial Estate.