Vent-Axia welcomed Prime Minister David Cameron to its headquarters in Crawley, West Sussex, on 23 January.
Mr Cameron visited the firm to view its assembly lines that were brought back to the UK from China. The new production lines create 35 new site jobs in a tough economic climate and increase the number of its assembly staff on site employed by 50% compared to before the reshoring.
Vent-Axia completed the reshoring of the balance of its domestic fan manufacturing, from China back to the UK, in January 2013 with the launch of three new production lines at Crawley. The culmination of a two-year project, the new assembly lines doubled the firm's on-site manufacturing of its residential unitary fans. The company invested over £350k in tooling for the new production lines, as well as investing in building works to incorporate the new manufacturing.
Mr Cameron toured the production lines with Ronnie George CEO of Volution, Vent-Axia's parent company, and spoke to new staff that had joined the company since the reshoring.
Mr Cameron said: 'I was very pleased to visit Vent-Axia to see what a positive effect reshoring has had on the company and meet the people who work there. Vent-Axia is a great example of a company that has brought manufacturing back to the UK, creating jobs for hard-working people.'
The Prime Minister was also interested to see a cheque written to the company by Winston Churchill, which paid for fans installed in 10 Downing Street in 1945. Having never been banked, the cheque takes pride of place in Vent-Axia's reception.
Ronnie George, ceo at Volution Holdings, the group that owns Vent-Axia, said: 'We are delighted Mr Cameron was able to visit our headquarters at Crawley yesterday and view our production lines. Reshoring the balance of our residential fan production to the UK made sense due to a number of factors not just from a competitive position, but also customer service and responsiveness is substantially enhanced when manufacturing our products locally.
Also present at the visit was Henry Smith MP for Crawley who opened the three new production lines last year.
