Russell Roof Tiles has created a new role at its Burton factory site, as part of its investment in production.

With the objective of improving production line efficiencies and reducing down time, the new line technician role encompasses both maintenance and production.

Two new recruits have joined Russell as the first line technicians; Joshua Sudaby and Luke Gardener. Both are currently finishing their studies at local further education college Burton & South Derbyshire College, and will be starting at the company full time this summer.

Russell’s tile plant in Burton manufactures over 100,000 concrete roof tiles each day. Its tiles and accessories are used by the UK’s top housebuilders and high profile social housing and commercial projects, where sustainability and eco-credentials are of the utmost priority.

Maintenance manager Kevin Dunhill said: “This new position is quite an innovation for us, providing a multi-skilled approach which is already widely used in other sectors but not roof tiles manufacturing.

“Top production lines in the automotive and aerospace Industries already successfully use multi-skilled operatives in their plants to improve efficiencies. The new recruits will be trained to a very high level internally as well as with external training from Burton & South Derbyshire College.”