AN ENGINEERING company from Stoke Prior is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month after beating the recession with its most profitable year ever.

Handling Concepts Ltd designs and builds specialist material handling equipment for its clients and although the company is enjoying its prosperity now, it wasn't always faced with good news.

During the recession, the firm had to go through redundancies while the staff who remained worked either fewer days or longer hours for the same money. Senior managers had to work without any pay at all for a period of time.

Company secretary Karie Burbeck said: "We have a high reputation for customer satisfaction so when our old customers were confident enough to start investing again they came back to us immediately."

Managing director Roger Pask added: “Being professional and consistent in all that we do has underpinned our recovery program spectacularly - we are in much better shape coming out of the recession than when we entered it."

The company is actively recruiting in all areas of the business having recently increased its workshop capacity.

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