'Olympic' firm to relocate to Buckshaw (From Lancashire Telegraph)

'Olympic' firm to relocate to Buckshaw

3:18pm Wednesday 8th September 2010 in Buckshaw

A Lancashire firm intends to make a splash at the 2012 Olympics after relocating from Accrington to Buckshaw Village.

Production Glassfibre, (PGF), will produce the moulds needed to make diving boards for the London Games at new state-of-the-art premises after leaving Altham Business Park.

The growing company employs 250 people at three sites and that is set to grow by more than 100 with the move.

The firm has transferred staff from Altham and intend to make Buckshaw, near Chorley, its headquarters Group managing director Steve Grossi said: “It’s an opportunity to use the very latest manufacturing techniques and have the site operate as our headquarters and the base for all research and development.

“We will be bringing existing staff and recruiting 15 new staff initially, however this is likely to increase to 110 as research and development is brought to Chorley.”

Having started from a church building with just five employees, PGF is the UK’s largest moulder of glass reinforced plastics.

Its products are used in industries such as health care, defence, construction, housebuilding and motorsport, as well as the Olympic project.

A championship diving tower has several horizontal platforms.

The diver jumps from 33 feet, 24.7 feet and 16.5 feet, depending on the event.

Other high profile projects undertaken by the firm include participating in Scotland’s flagship millennium project, the joining of the Forth and Clyde canals by means of a revolutionary 'wheel' arrangement which transfers vessels.

PGF produced the 10m hoops on the aqueduct leading to the wheel.

They have also worked on the recently completed rebuild of the Lansdowne Road stadium in Dublin.