Agile Circuit Technology Group is expanding recruitment across Active-PCB Solutions in Reading and Garner Osborne Circuits in Newbury as the UK electronics manufacturing group adds production capacity, equipment, and management capability. The recruitment programme covers production, strategic, and leadership positions, including additional surface-mount technology personnel at Active-PCB and roles supporting production and supply-chain management.
The programme links headcount to a wider series of manufacturing investments rather than presenting recruitment as an isolated corporate exercise. Active-PCB and Garner Osborne operate as sister businesses within Agile Circuit Technology Group, combining UK PCB manufacture and electronics assembly with new product introduction, testing and inspection, conformal coating, cable work, and box-build capability across the two Berkshire operations.
At Active-PCB, additional SMT personnel are being recruited to increase capacity at the Reading factory. Surface-mount assembly is heavily automated, but production output remains dependent on skilled staff to manage materials, feeders, programmes, changeovers, solder-paste processes, placement, reflow, inspection, and exceptions when a line moves outside its process window. Increasing equipment capacity without the people required to operate and control it would simply move the manufacturing bottleneck.
Active-PCB has been investing in that wider process chain. Recent additions include further reflow capacity and an in-house conformal-coating operation, alongside software and operational-system improvements. The coating capability gives the company greater control over a production stage that can otherwise require assemblies to leave the factory for subcontract processing, adding transport, queue time, and another supplier interface to the manufacturing route.
Garner Osborne contributes bare-board PCB manufacture and additional assembly capability from Newbury. The business has operated in PCB production for more than three decades and provides fabrication, prototyping, assembly, inspection, and associated manufacturing services. Its position in the group gives Active-PCB closer access to UK board-manufacturing expertise, while Garner Osborne can offer customers downstream assembly and box-build services through its sister operation.
That combination can simplify the manufacturing route for customers that would otherwise place bare-board fabrication, assembly, coating, testing, and finished-system work with several suppliers. It also creates additional coordination requirements inside the group. Manufacturing information, material status, quality records, production schedules, and customer changes need to move between sites without becoming slower simply because the businesses now have more capability available between them.
Dean Curran, chief executive of Agile Circuit Technology Group, said: “We are seeing strong opportunities for growth across both Active-PCB Solutions and Garner Osborne, and this recruitment drive is about making sure we have the right people, skills and leadership in place to support that growth while maintaining the quality and service that our customers expect.”
The emphasis on supply-chain and production leadership is significant in contract electronics manufacturing. A high-mix operation can be running prototypes, new-product-introduction builds, repeat batches, and larger production programmes through the same facility, with each job carrying different bills of materials, component risks, inspection requirements, and delivery schedules. Placement speed alone says little about usable capacity when planning, procurement, test, or materials can become the limiting process first.
Electronic component availability remains another operational constraint. Active-PCB has recently advised customers to identify critical and long-lead components early and secure bare PCB requirements ahead of production, citing pressure on laminate availability and the risk of extended lead times. Adding supply-chain leadership while increasing production capacity consequently addresses a practical manufacturing problem: more factory throughput requires earlier visibility of the material needed to keep that factory running.
The group’s two-site structure also provides an element of manufacturing resilience. Garner Osborne and Active-PCB retain distinct operations while sharing resources, expertise, and selected services, giving the combined organisation options that neither site would necessarily hold independently. The model does not make production interchangeable automatically, because processes and equipment still have to be qualified for particular work, but it can provide customers with a broader manufacturing base inside one group.
Skills remain part of the constraint despite increasing automation. SMT placement, inspection, coating, test, rework, and PCB fabrication all require operators and technicians who understand the process rather than simply the machine interface. As product complexity increases and volumes remain mixed, experienced staff are needed to identify whether an apparent equipment problem is actually caused by materials, design, programming, handling, or an earlier process stage.
The recruitment announcement does not disclose how many positions are being created, the financial value of the latest equipment programme, or a quantified increase in factory output. Those figures should not be inferred from the wider expansion. What the available information establishes is that Agile is adding people across both businesses while investing in equipment, processes, software, and operational leadership to support growing manufacturing demand.
The next measure will therefore be utilisation rather than vacancy numbers. Reflow ovens, coating equipment, inspection systems, PCB fabrication machinery, and manufacturing software create theoretical capability; production planning and skilled operators determine how much of it becomes conforming product delivered on time. Agile’s decision to recruit across the shop floor, supply chain, and leadership at the same time suggests the group is building capacity across the process rather than treating another SMT line as the whole answer.
