Sports car manufacturer Group Lotus has announced plans to create 150 new jobs as its gears up to launch one of the fastest cars in the company's history.
The Hethel-based business has revealed that it will bolster its manufacturing department over the next four months to tie in with the release of the Evora 400 sports car.
The new model, which can reach a maximum speed of 186mph and accelerate from 0 to 60mph in 4.1 seconds, is the first road-going sports car to be rolled out under the company's new chief executive Jean-Marc Gales, who aims to return the firm to profit within the next three years.
The new manufacturing roles, which will be predominantly in Norfolk, underpin plans to scale-up the production of all its models to 70 cars per week by the end of September.
The recruitment drive comes despite the EDP Top 100 company announcing at the end of last year that it would axe 325 staff from its global workforce of 1,215. The cuts, which hit its marketing, engineering and processing departments, saw 252 jobs lost in Norfolk.
Mr Gales said: 'A requirement for all Lotus cars is to be a benchmark for handling, to be the quickest car from A to B and to provide the driver with a pure and involving driving experience.
'The Evora 400 is the fastest road-going Lotus that we have ever produced, possessing performance that can only be matched by cars costing significantly more. It delivers supercar looks allied to supercar performance.'
Lotus Group International reduced its losses from £167.8m to £71.1m to the end of March 2014, while its car division notched a 1pc increase in revenues to £68.5m.
He added: 'Our dealer network stands at 168 worldwide, which is still growing to reach 200 dealers by the end of 2015, while our sales volumes have increased by over 50pc in the last 10 months. 'The new Lotus Evora 400 will make its mark as a significant milestone in the history of Lotus. Looking to the future, the Lotus Evora 400 will remain core to our product line up for many years to come, with more exciting derivatives planned within the next few years.'
The new Lotus Evora 400 will enter production in the summer of this year.
• Do you have a business story for the Eastern Daily Press? Contact business editor Ben Woods on 01603 772426 or email ben.woods@archant.co.uk
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