MAZAK has marked 20 years of European manufacturing with the completion of a major expansion and investment programme at its plant in Worcester.

The factory in Badgeworth Drive, Warndon, now occupies 29,000 square metres of floor space, providing an increased production capacity of 150 machine tools per month.

There are now more than 320 people employed in production and more than 80 per cent of the factory's output is exported to Europe.

To celebrate, 300 guests from across Europe - customers, sales partners, suppliers of goods and professional services and representatives of central and local government - had an opportunity to look at the recently-completed factory extension before a lunch hosted by Yamazaki Mazak Corp-oration president, Tomohisa Yamazaki. The principal guests were His Excellency the Japanese Ambassador and Lord Walker of Worcester.

The choice of Lord Walker as guest of honour was particularly appropriate because the former MP for Worcester and Secretary of State for Wales opened the factory in 1987.

He said: "My happiest memories of this remarkable company were when they had agreed to come to Worcester and I asked, How long do you think it will be before you build the factory?' They gave me an incredibly short period and I said to them that they might have some difficulty achieving that, but not a bit. It was built on time and on budget.

"I then came and saw the empty factory and I said How long will it take you to be in production?' I always remember the answer. It wasn't a year or two it was 71 days. I thought that was impossible.

"There was no machinery in the factory at all. However, I saw machinery come in on date, labelled where it had to go, what date it had to be installed by, what date it had to be tested by and what date it had to be ready for full production. All those dates were kept. In fact, Yamazaki Mazak completed everything in 70 days not 71 days. It was a very perfectionist organisation.

"In Worcester we are grateful for the people the company has trained. Young people have come in and been trained under Mazak's umbrella and become skilled engineers.

"That is a great strength to a city such as ours. We have a great debt of thanks to you and I want to thank you for all you have achieved over the last 20 years."

Mazak's Worcester factory has won a number of awards and distinctions.

In 1991, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Scien-ces carried out an international study to identify companies with outstanding levels of productivity and management integration.

It said that Yamazaki Mazak UK was one of the 12 best companies in the world.

The following year - only five years after starting production - the firm received a Queen's Award for Export Achieve-ment. In its 20th anniversary year the company has won a Queen's Award for Inter-national Trade. More than 80 per cent of the machines built in Worcester are exported and 45 per cent of all Mazak machines in Europe come from the factory.