Cambs: inkjet success brings 70 new jobs to Hunts

UP to 70 new jobs are set to be created in Huntingdon following the spectacular success of printing products manufactured there.

UP to 70 new jobs are set to be created in Huntingdon following the spectacular success of printing products manufactured there.

Inkjet printhead manufacturer Xaar, founded 20 years ago with headquarters at Cambridge Science Park and its manufacturing base at Ermine Business Park in Huntingdon, has seen a huge rise in demand for a new product that prints on tiles.

The company had been planning to move manufacturing from its other plant in Sweden to Huntingdon. But demand has risen so much that the Swedes have had a reprieve and the Huntingdon plant is set to expand anyway.

Marketing director Mark Alexander told The Hunts Post: “We are seeing very significant growth in what we call our Platform 3 product. The increase in the industrial inkjet business has been 131 per cent in the last six months, though from quite a low base. It’s now starting to contribute a lot to our overall business.

“We can see demand continuing to rise this year and next year, and it’s looking good beyond that,” he added.

“So we shall create between 50 and 70 new jobs in Huntingdon over the next 12 months and shall be spending �5million a year of capital expenditure this year and again next year.

“We were going to close the plant in Sweden and transfer production here – but we need the floor space in Huntingdon.”

Xaar already provides employment for 180 people in Huntingdon, out of a total global workforce of around 400, most of them in manufacturing in Huntingdon and J�rf�lla, near the Swedish capital, Stockholm.

The extra capacity in Huntingdon is expected to become fully operational in 2011.