Global network infrastructure manufacturer, CommScope, has been awarded £275,000 of grant funding towards a project with capital expenditure of £1 million, which will develop a new production line for its Fife facility, safeguarding over 90 jobs in Scotland.

The local facility was chosen for this expansion over the company’s US and Chinese facilities in a deal which saw, for the first time, the economic development agency streamline three grant applications into one offer to make it a more attractive proposal for CommScope’s American parent company to endorse.

The new production line will see the company, which currently employs 140 people at its Lochgelly plant, manufacture three different sizes of aluminium cable in parallel with its existing production of copper cabling, for the telecoms and wireless communications market. The decision to diversify its product range comes as a result of direct customer feedback to meet new customer demands, as well as the impact to its business of the highly volatile copper commodity price over recent years.

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CommScope site manager, David Dryburgh, said: "Significant advances in aluminium-based cable technology combined with the continued high volatility of copper pricing have fuelled a shift in customer demand for cabling in wireless networks. CommScope has expanded its offerings to address this market shift, and we are proud that our Lochgelly facility can grow to help meet this new demand.

"The funding from Scottish Enterprise has really made everything possible for us. Its new streamlined approach to access funding from three different grants has enabled us to secure investment from our parent company and ultimately secure our future at our facility in Lochgelly."

This news comes as we host the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) national manufacturing conference in Dunblane, where over 300 delegates from Scotland’s manufacturing sector will come together to discuss and debate the challenges and issues facing the sector.

(GK)