Northumberland Electric Component Company Plans Expansion

A Northumberland company that makes components for electric vehicles is drawing up plans to move to a bigger factory and recruit hundreds of staff to meet increasing demand for its products. AVID Technology Group, which employs about 100 staff at its main site in Cramlington, aims to employ 200 or 300 more workers as big orders roll in from bus, truck and supercar producers.

Ryan Maughan, chief executive of AVID, talks about the company’s rise and growth plans: “We need to move to a bigger site, we need more production lines. As soon as we get out of the covid situation, we will be starting to plan that, hiring staff and things to support that.”

Maughan, who set up AVID 15 years ago, said that the early talks the company had with vehicle manufacturers helped the company when the industry switched to electrification.

He said: “In the last couple of years, the whole market has just sort of shot off in that direction because of market pull. There’s lots of different regulations that have come in around the world that are really driving electrification as well. That meant that we were in the right place at the right time.”

AVID makes all the elements of the powertrain – the electric motor, and the various electrified components that get power from the motor to the wheels. It makes components such as fans and pumps used electric and hybrid vehicles. And it designs and makes battery systems.

Overseas expansion could feed further growth. Maughan said: “We’ve got an office in the US at the moment with one person, I can see that easily having tens of people in it.”

He added: “We’re starting to see interest in our stuff from Asia. Over the next couple of years, we are going to be planning how to enter the Asian market properly.”