A Black Country manufacturing firm that has been in business for more than 20 years has tripled its turnover thanks to the growth in demand for wind turbines.

Sentinel Plastics, in Wrights Lane, Cradley Heath, is continuing to grow and plans to add machinery worth more than £100,000 in November to its factory site, where nine extra workers have been taken on in recent months. And bosses today said more jobs would be created in the New Year as the business would have to expand to keep up with its biggest customers.

Lee Houghton, who runs the firm with partner Simon Inston, said: “We’ve been doing really well, we have tripled turnover in the last three years.

“And we are going to do the same again over the next three years.”

Mr Houghton, aged 46, bought the company eight years ago with Mr Inston in a management buyout from the previous owners, who retired.

He said one of the secrets of the firm’s success was down to the pair’s decision to add an extra line to the company’s already flourishing line of plastics for industry.

Mr Houghton, whose wife Debbie also works on the firm’s accounts, added: “We added a building products line and it’s made us a one-stop shop for a lot of companies.” Sentinel’s products range from plastics to protect workers from machinery, insulation to protect wiring and insulation to protect bearings in machinery.

But their biggest earner has come following an increase in demand for specially-designed power control units for inside wind turbines.

Mr Houghton added: “Our biggest customer will be tripling turnover soon and we will have to keep up.

“They have been growing tremendously because of the green movement. We have got 15 machines doing our lines but we will have to add two more to increase our capacity.”