Bosses at Stafford’s biggest private employer have unveiled plans to boost their workforce by another 400 people over the next four years.

While other manufacturing companies across the UK plan for redundancies and short-time working, order books at Areva T&D are full.

There is now an 18-month waiting list for the power transformers made at its sites in Lichfield Road and St Leonard’s Avenue as it benefits from massive increases in energy demands in recent years.

It is a dramatic turnaround since the company, formerly Alstom GEC, was saved from the brink of closure by a buyout from French power group Areva in 2004. In the past two years it has recruited 350 more people, giving it a workforce 1,600 strong.

Today the firm revealed it plans to increase the Stafford workforce by 25 per cent under a four year plan.

“Business is very buoyant for us at the moment,” said country sales director Charles Birchall. “As well as new work we are replacing old equipment on the energy networks that is 40 or 50 years old. There is a lot of investment going on.”

The company has won work on major new wind farm projects and is supplying power generators and energy companies around the world. 

Its customers range from the major energy suppliers, such as EDF and the National Grid, to big factories that need their own electrical sub-stations. The Stafford operation has also become a centre for research and development attracting staff from 32 countries.

Areva T&D has broken its own sales records for the past two years on the run, now selling more than £420 million of its equipment in the UK and exporting another £170 million.

Mr Birchall said the growth plan underlined Areva’s commitment to maintaining manufacturing at Stafford.