Amid a challenging economic climate the firm has emerged as something of a local success story, after staff numbers swelled from 14 to 48 as a result of dramatically increasing workloads.

The past two months have seen Prevision move from its humble 324 square metre facility into a brand new 1500 square metre workshop in Leewood Drive to deal with the extraordinary growth.

Prevision is an offshoot of Orange-based parent company Pybar and specialises in engineering design, fabrication, machining and welding.

Pybar managing director Paul Rouse said the strength of the manufacturing industry in Orange was due to a mix of the city’s central location and the presence of nearby mining operations.

“The climate is a challenge at the moment but we were here well before the global financial crisis and plan to be here post global financial crisis,” he said.

“We see this downturn, this low time, as an opportunity to go out and seek business ready for the next boom. I think the Central West is a good base for everything really, we’ve secured business in Victoria, we service the coal fields of the Hunter Valley and mines out west in places like Cobar.”

Roughly 30 per cent of the 34 new Prevision staff members had moved to Orange specifically to seek work.

“One of the things we found is that people were moving to Orange without a job but actively looking for work because the employment market here is quite buoyant,” Prevision general manager Tim Lockrey said.

At least 10 of the staff are undertaking their apprenticeships, including a number of the firm’s more mature aged employees.

“The thing that speaks to me most about this is that there’s an increasing mass of engineering skills in Orange, which is good for employment options and builds on our education base because many of the people employed in the industry are apprentices,” Orange City Council economic development committee chairperson, councillor Gavin Priestley said at last week’s opening. Prevision also operates a secondary base in Parkes.