AN INDUSTRIAL automation firm has celebrated its 40th birthday in some style.

Blackburn-based Northern Industrial celebrated the landmark with an industrial size cake for its staff.

The cake, which formed the centrepiece of a birthday celebration for over 70 staff and their families at AFC Darwen, featured a circuit board design, and Happy Birthday in 59 languages, representing every one spoken in the 146 countries the company has exported to in its history.

The first of its size ever produced by Chorley promotional cake company Eat My Logo, the 75 x 75 cm square, 35 kilogram cake was lifted into the venue on a specially designed pallet.

The birthday comes after the company has achieved a new record year for turnover and profits, which follows 27 per cent average organic growth over the last five years.

The multi-award-winning family company provides new, reconditioned and obsolete parts and repair services to companies across the world from its recently expanded premises on Shadsworth Industrial Estate.

Sourcing from over 1,350 manufacturers, the company covers over 200,000 part numbers and holds approximately £7m in stock.

Managing director David Lenehan said: “It’s fantastic to be able to celebrate our birthday with all our staff and their families.

“The last few years have been great for us and every indication is that it will only get better.

Although we have customers in a wide variety of manufacturing disciplines, one thing they all have in common is they want to avoid downtime at all costs.

“Sometimes you just need someone on your side in a stressful breakdown situation.

Our aim is to provide the spare parts and repairs customers need as quickly as possible to minimise downtime.

We specialise in keeping businesses up and running, with high quality industrial electronic spare parts, repairs and onsite support.

“We employ the best electronic engineers and provide all customers with a dedicated account manager to keep them up-to-date, while our sourcing team use the most thorough methods and industry knowledge to track down hard-to-find obsolete parts

“Having the right staff with the right attitude is absolutely essential to us, so it’s important to celebrate our success with them as well as our customers across the world.”