Workers at an engineering firm are looking forward to a brighter future now the company has been bought out.

Leicester Circuits, in East Goscote, went into administration last month and had to lay off 47 workers, but a consortium led by the firm's previous owners has bought out and restarted the business.
It is the second time the company, which manufactures circuit boards for the military, medical and leisure sectors, has changed hands in the past eight months.

Keith Fisher, the firm's new general manager, is part of the new consortium running the company. He said: "We have had a very good month since we took over and are winning new business which we can hopefully maintain."

About 25 staff have been re-employed - about half of the original workforce.

Mr Fisher said: "All the people we asked to come back have done so, although there were one or two who had other commitments. Whereas before there were two people on each machine we now have people who are multi-tasking.

"They are trained on how to operate three, four, or even five, different pieces of equipment. The key thing for us is to keep overheads down but we will know how well things are going in three to six months' time. If business keeps improving, we may look at expanding the workforce in future."

Staff at the firm have had a turbulent few months. In January the firm was bought by One Way Circuits, in Norwich. However, it hit financial problems in May and the workforce was locked out of the premises. A few weeks later the company went into administration but has now been rescued.

Mr Fisher said: "The takeover was in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. We saw an opportunity to start afresh and we are glad to have taken it. There is a spring in people's step and all the workforce are enthusiastic about working here.

"We are a very technical company in the equipment we have, and one of the few to do what we do in the UK. We have spoken to previous customers and slowly they are beginning to return so, hopefully, the future looks bright."

As a sign of the improvement, the firm has announced an expansion of its research and development team.

Tony Williams, the company's commercial director, said: "Leicester Circuits is an important player in the printed circuit board industry and it will benefit greatly from this new investment. The input from the new technical team will be invaluable and will allow the company to grow and prosper in the future."

Source: Leicester Mercury

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