BURSCOUGH-BASED TRM Packaging is gearing up for expansion, after securing bank funding.

The firm supplies boxes and packaging to the poultry, snacks, drinks and healthcare sectors.

As part of a £4m investment programme this year, TRM is spending 2.5m euros on a new piece of machinery that will allow it to step up production.

It plans to increase turnover from £25m to £33m over the next two years.

Backing for the expansion has come from the commercial banking team at HSBC, in Liverpool, which is providing a £4.5m equipment finance facility and a £6m invoice finance facility.

The bank financing facilities include foreign exchange hedging products, which allowed the business to take advantage of the favourable exchange rates in the summer to purchase its new machinery from Germany.

TRM managing director, Trevor Maund, said: “We are committed to continually investing in and improving our business, and the latest funding provided by HSBC will support us in this strategy.

“We aim to provide products that help our customers achieve more with their businesses, and that is exactly the kind of banking support we have received from HSBC.

“We’re looking forward to working with the North West commercial team moving forward.”

TRM employs 230 people in the North West and has already won the support of the Northwest Development Agency, which has given the business a grant to help it protect jobs and employment over the next five to 10 years.

TRM designs, prints and makes cardboard packaging from pizza boxes to trays for wine bottles. Some 80% of its work is in the food industry, with major clients including the Grampian Food Group.