Rackheath-based Milltech Precision Engineering has installed �600,000 of new machinery to cope with rising demand.

The company, a former EDP Business Awards business of the year winner in 2009, which employs 32 people including five apprentices, saw a 23pc growth in turnover to �2.3m in 2010/11 and says it is on course to do �3.5m of sales this year.

Managing director Mike Ottolangui, said Milltech was reaping the benefits of a decision to press ahead with plans to twice expand its factory including in the teeth of the last recession following a management buyout in 2004.

The business is headed by Mr Ottolangui and fellow directors Bernard Smith and Darren Osborne.

Growth has also been fuelled by the introduction of new computer-based technology, and a decision to secure industry ISO9001 accreditation has also given it the edge in securing business from major multi-nationals, including Bosch Rexroth, and Parker Hannifin.

Mr Ottolangui said the new equipment, which was installed over Christmas, would allow the continued expansion of the business and meet increasing customer demand for our high quality component manufacturing and assembly business.

While the management team are also considering whether to go along the acquisition route as a means of expanding the business.

'With our main customer base being blue chip multi-national operators we demonstrate that UK manufacturers can compete on the global market,' Mr Ottolangui said. 'When we acquired the business there wasn't a single computer in the place, by 2008 we needed to expand the building again and the extension was completed a year later.

'We're now at the stage where we need to expand the business again.'

Mr Osborne said the three have also managed to put management structures in place, which had allowed them to step back a bit from the day to running of the business and focus

'In those early years, all it was about was hard work,' he said. 'We had a three-year plan and a five-year plan, but we didn't stick to it rigidly and we always put ourselves in a position where we could take up an opportunity when it presented itself to us.

Mr Smith said: 'It does work incredibly well, we have all got different skills and strengths.'