BRITAIN'S leading fire truck manufacturer has installed a production line facility at its Worcester factory to keep up with demand.

The first chassis rolled off the line yesterday at Carmichael International's plant in Weir Lane, Lower Wick.

The company has been making fire trucks since 1959 and installed the line six weeks ago to keep up with demand for its Cobra 2 model, which goes to airports in Britain and throughout the world.

"Such has been the increase in orders for Carmichael's world-beating Cobra 2 airport firefighting vehicle, we have had to reconfigure the plant at Weir Lane to meet the demand," said Bill Hall, managing director.

The first chassis to roll off the new line was for a client in Malaysia and another five have been ordered by a client in Indonesia. There are also numerous orders waiting to be filled from within Britain.

The new line will shorten production and lead times for the company, which used to be based in Gregory's Mill Street.

"We are at a most exciting stage of the company's development," said Mr Hall.

"We are expanding our facility and resources to cope with the gaining popularity of all of our product range."

Carmichael's International Ltd is Britain's largest manufacturer of specialist firefighting appliances.

The company has an order book of more than 80 vehicles destined for clients throughout the world.

Mr Hall said confidence in the Carmichael product range had been further boosted by the injection of substantial funds from its directors and venture capitalist Aberdeen Murray Johnstone.

"This enables the expansion of the business and allows further improvement to our large product range and high levels of customer service.

"The Cobra 2 range has now become the most successful product in Carmichael's history. This new investment allows continuous product development to ensure that the high levels of reliability and performance already achieved are maintained."

Meanwhile, the next generation of vehicles for all market sectors are being developed by the company, in an attempt to surpass the increasingly stringent criteria firefighting organisations insist on.