BALL bearing manufacturer Barden is today looking to recruit 60 workers after seeing turnover leap more than ￡10million to record levels.

The firm, which has its UK headquarters in Estover, said it has more work than it can handle due to huge growth in exports, mainly to the Far East.

It is a far cry from the dark days of the 2009 recession when the Plymouth plant’s 434-strong workforce shrank by 100 staff through redundancies, retirements and wastage.

But last year it saw a dramatic turnaround, with turnover rocketing from 2009’s ￡26million to a record ￡35million.


The firm took 100 people on last year, including some of the laid-off workers.

Managing director Ian Burnage said forecasts for this year predict turnover will be “easily in excess of ￡40million”.

“We will have another record year, we know that,” Mr Burnage said.

Barden was today due to recruit more skilled workers at an open day in Plymouth.

It is staging a second recruitment day in Poland later this month, but Mr Burnage said: “If we can get enough in the Plymouth area we won’t need to go elsewhere.”

But he stressed the firm needed “people we can quickly train”.

Mr Burnage said the firm requires skilled workers. All applicants must pass a maths exam and an eye test, because the work involves making calculations and using tiny components. Last year, Barden was able to take on skilled employees who had lost their jobs when Gleason Cutting Tools shut its Plymouth plant.

The company, part of the multinational Schaeffler Group, makes high-quality ball bearings for use in the semi-conductor industry, which in turn are used to make such things as plasma TVs and mobile phones; in machine tools and medical equipment.

Barden is benefiting from an export-led boom for British manufacturing.

Business surveys suggest manufacturing is growing domestically but particularly in overseas sales, fuelled by the recovery of the global economy and the fall in the pound against international currencies.

Mr Burnage said Barden is also benefiting from producing high-quality, bespoke bearings.

“We don’t make catalogue products,” he said. “We make stuff that is difficult to make.

We solve customers’ problems.

“They can get products cheaper, but we get very few issues with quality.”

He said the growth is driven by selling abroad mainly to the Far East, but also to places such as Germany, where again Barden’s bearings are used in equipment then sold outside Europe.

“We are a very export led company – 80-85 per cent is directly exported,” Mr Burnage said.

“And the companies we sell to in the UK are export driven as well.”

Mr Burnage said the firm has developed so suddenly the only “risk” to its business is it doesn’t know how big it needs to grow.

“If I knew what was going to happen to the market this year I could put a budget for next year,” he said. “The risk is we don’t know how big the business should be. But if it continues to grow we will have to start looking at expanding the facility.”

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