ONE of East Lancashire’s most prominent engineering groups has defied the harsh economic conditions posed by the coronavirus pandemic with a new expansion.

Burnley Engineering Group’s new business is known as Advanced Fabrication Solutions and will specialise in metal working, fabrication and welding services.

The business has already recruited a team of six and invested in a suite of machinery including MIG and TIG welding plants, a CNC turret punch, pressbrake machinery, guillotines, and equipment to support bending, folding and notching to operate out of it 5,000 square feet facility.

Managing director Annette Weekes said: “We’re absolutely delighted to add fabrication and metal working to our offering of services.

“It was a crucial part of the plan for 2020 and it’s a credit to the whole team at PDS and Tooling that we’ve achieved this despite pressure from the pandemic and the local lockdown.

“We’re incredibly excited for the year ahead!”

Advanced Fabrication Solutions will now work alongside Ms Weekes’ other businesses including PDS CNC Engineering of Nelson, which worked on Thrust SSC and assisted in the rebuild of Donald Campbell’s Bluebird boat; jigs and tool making specialist Tooling Solutions and medical device specialist Morow.

This new expansion means that the group now can handle work from precision machining, engineering design, jigs and fixture, 3D printing and now fabrication.

This new announcement comes just days after Ms Weekes teamed up with friends and colleagues Paul White and Connor Hall of LiveWellUK.com to launch Holiday Hunger East Lancashire in support of footballer Marcus Rashford’s campaign to provide free school meals to under privileged children during school holidays.

Ms Weekes said: “We’re looking for people who can help us by donating food, or money, to be able to support as many young people as possible.

“We’ve set up a JustGiving Page, or we can be contacted through our website.”

To find out more about Holiday Hunger East Lancashire, visit: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/holiday-hunger-east-lancs.