NWEP helps employer land £3m grant

Hundreds of jobs have been safeguarded after a major Chippenham employer secured £3 million of government funding – with the help of the North Wiltshire Economic Partnership.

Partnership manager Colette Mallon worked with DTR VMS and Wiltshire Council to secure the grant, which is part of an overall investment of £21 million in Wiltshire from the Regional Growth Fund.

The grant will safeguard 195 jobs at the former Avon Automotive VMS plant at Bumper´s farm in Chippenham, and help secure another 800 jobs in companies which supply to DTR VMS.

Colette Mallon, manager of the North Wiltshire Economic partnership, said: “Securing RGF funding to support local economic development is a specific objective within the Action for Wiltshire programme and it sends a strong signal that the council and its partners want to make Wiltshire a business location of choice.

“The investment will create and safeguard a significant number of highly skilled jobs within a priority sector. We hope this will help build confidence at a crucial time for the local economy and will encourage other foreign owned companies to invest in Wiltshire.”

A spokesman for DTR VMS said: “DTR VMS Limited is delighted that its bid application for the second round of the government’s Regional Growth Fund has been successful.

“The DTR VMS Limited project is key to underpinning the growth plans of its South Korean parent company Dong Ah Tire and Rubber Company Limited and will ensure the safeguarding of around 195 existing jobs in the DTR VMS UK facility and the creation of up to 21 new jobs in the next few years.”

DTR VMS, whose parent company – Dong Ah Tire and Rubber Company – is based in South Korea, manufactures specialist automotive components.

It intends to increase its research and development capacity by moving into a purpose built state-of-the-art facility.

The grant was one of 119 successful bids for RGF money, and one of only eight in the South West.

The £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund was launched by deputy rime minister Nick Clegg on October 31. Mr Clegg said grants would create a "snowball effect that creates hundreds of thousands of jobs".

The government says that for every £1 of taxpayers money spent, £6 is matched by the private sector.