Start-up firm spots a window of opportunity

A NEW manufacturing business has been established in Oldham, creating up to 10 jobs.

Cross Windows and Conservatories, part of Burnley property group CR Ltd, is based in a new workshop at the Chambers Business Centre in Chapel Road, Hollinwood.

Adnan Yousaf, a qualified chartered building surveyor, has been appointed a director of the business and is working alongside Ken Blain, from Audenshaw, to establish Cross as a serious player in the residential and domestic market, initially, and ultimately in the commercial sector.

Mr Blain has a wealth of experience in the windows and uPVC business, having worked in North Wales with two major companies for many years before being made redundant.

He has taken on two trainees from TNG, the training business based at the Chambers Business Centre, to help manufacture windows and doors for the ongoing project that is the refurbishment of the former mill complex in Hollinwood.

Cross Windows has struck a partnership with Macclesfield-based Spectus to supply the extrusions.

Mr Yousaf said: “We have invested heavily in equipment and people to get this business started.

“We have been manufacturing for several weeks now, making some complicated and complex frames for the apertures in the old mill, and now feel we are in a position to offer our services to the wider public.

“We will initially be manufacturing windows, doors, conservatories and orangeries for the domestic market in Oldham but we expect to move on quite quickly into the commercial sector and to expand our customer base throughout Greater Manchester.”

He added that Cross already has the capacity to manufacture 300 frames a week with potential to increase this figure substantially.