WORK colleagues Carl Brazil and Scott Lewthwaite realised they had to act quickly when their company Able Tooling was put up for sale

Two interested parties wanted to buy the business and take it out of Redditch altogether - putting the entire workforce at risk.

The company, which is based in Arthur Street Industrial Estate, had been founded by owner Nigel Rhodes 30 years ago, designs and manufactures precision tooling for the automotive, medical, food and aerospace industry.

They also had a thriving order book and plenty of high value machine tools at their disposal.

Carl said: "Everyone was very concerned to say the least. The owner wanted to concentrate on his property business and the people who wanted to buy the company would have taken it out of the area, which would have been no good to anyone currently working here.

"Our customers were also worried as to where they could get their work done if we closed.

"Then Nigel approached Scott and myself and asked if we'd be interested in buying the business. We'd got 24 years experience between us, so we decided to take it on and save the 15 jobs".

The pair re-mortgaged their homes and sought the assistance of business coach Peter Sinnott, who helped them obtain loans through support from Close Brothers Asset Finance.

Carl, who is now the new production director at Able Tooling, added: "We've already got six months of work on the books, if not more and we're getting new orders everyday.

"It's got to the point where we're already advertising for new staff."

Scott, who has become managing director, added: "We have a team of skilled and dedicated toolmakers and it's our quest to double the turnover."