A FACTORY with 330 employees has helped a global conglomerate become one of the "best managed" companies in the world.

Stourport's Textron Automotive, in the doldrums only seven months ago because of a business downturn, is now in high favour with its US-based parent company because of its good safety record.

The plant, formerly Midland Industrial Plastics, has received an award as one of Textron's top 10 factories for safety out of 190 operated by the group.

Safety practice and performance was one of the key criteria that earned Textron Inc a place on Industry Week magazine's list of the "World's 100 Best-Managed Companies" for the second time.

The Stourport business, which makes car components, was bought by Textron in August 1998.

Managers said that despite a period of difficulties in the automotive industry leading to job losses, with 50 redundancies last January, the Stourport factory had worked hard to make its operation one of the safest in the corporation.

Human resources manager David Morris said: "Safety is never a very exciting topic, unless it is for the wrong reasons, and that is how we want it to stay."