MORE than 200 new jobs are on offer at Chandler's Ford, as American-owned APW Electronics puts the finishing touches to a $10 million expansion at its factory on the Chandler's Ford Industrial Estate.

The opening next month of the major extension to the factory is the first stage of a massive $50 millioninvestment programme by the American company in its facilities in South Hampshire.

Milwaukee-based Applied Power took control of the former Vero Electronics factories in 1998.

The new facilities at Electron Way are purely to manufacture and assemble radio base stations that will be required for the next generation of mobile phones.

The company says mobile phone network operators will need the equipment in huge numbers to create the new network infrastructure.

"We are already one of the largest employers in the Southampton area, and this factory expansion is extremely good news for the local community,'' said Steve Allen, operations leader at the Chandler's Ford factory.

More investment is planned by the American company in the latest technology for its Hedge End facilities and expansion at Totton. The Hedge End facility is one of the world's leading manufacturers of backplanes, high density interconnection devices.

The Totton company specialises in outdoor enclosures for the telecoms industry.

Recruitment at Chandler's Ford is already under way and the company says there are vacancies at various levels for skilled machine operators, planning engineers, production engineers, manufacturing staff and support professionals at all levels.

Said Mr Allen: "Over the next three years we expect employment to grow at Chandler's Ford to about 650 people. We will be increasing our head count in all areas, manufacturing, assembly and test. As well as people employed directly on the manufacturing processes, we will be recruiting a considerable number of engineers across many disciplines: specialists in world-class manufacturing practices, process engineers, production engineers, test and quality engineers."