Ballymena company Garage Door Systems Ltd is creating 17 new jobs as part of a £2 million investment supported by Invest Northern Ireland.

The family-run business, which manufactures and installs a range of made-to-measure garage doors for the domestic and professional markets, is now in its 20th year of trading and employs 33 staff.

As well as recruiting more staff, the investment will see the company invest in innovative manufacturing equipment and processes, develop a marketing strategy and upgrade its production management system.

Invest NI has offered £220,000 to support the creation of the new positions.

Commenting on the investment during a visit to the company, Invest NI’s Chief Executive,Alastair Hamilton, said: “With Invest NI’s assistance, Garage Door Systems Ltd will create 17 new jobs over the next three years including key financial and marketing positions that will support its overall aim of significantly increasing export sales.

“The company’s success has been driven by the quality of its products and service as well as a focus on innovation. This investment will help the company achieve its objective of growing sales in the Great Britain market.”

Garage Door Systems Ltd recently completed a research and development project to develop a new manufacturing process that is now being used to make a range of non standard pedestrian doors in small production runs with industry leading turnaround times

The project was supported by Invest NI, which offered over £33,000 of support part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Garage Door Systems’ Managing Director, Peter Doherty, said: “We are currently the market leader in two of our three target markets and have recently identified and exploited opportunities to raise our profile and increase sales into the Great Britain market. To further build on this we are now recruiting additional staff and aim to push our GB sales up to over 70% of our turnover.

“We’ve had a range of support from Invest NI over many years, which has helped us to expand our product range, employ additional staff and develop a robust strategy for growth.”