The Fylde coast engineers making parts for the new ventilators to help coronavirus patients breathe

Addison Precision, based on the Hillhouse Business Park in Thornton, was one of the firms that answered the government’s call for engineering companies to help build ventilators to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

The components are being manufactured in the firm’s purpose built facility, which was officially opened by the Prime Minister in 2014.

Addison have teamed up with the likes of Rolls-Royce, GKN and Smiths medical to form part of the National Ventilator Challenge UK Consortium.

They are working together in upscaling production of a device called the ParaPac ventilator by Luton-based Smiths Medical.

The ParaPAC plus lightweight and portable ventilators, delivers oxygen to the lungs of sick patients. The device is fully certified and used by medical professionals within the UK and overseas. Addison is making several thousand components for these ventilators and staff are working round the clock shifts.

Mark Verdon, the managing director of Addison Precision said: “We are immensely proud of our contribution to this project and helping to save lives at this time of national and international crisis.

“We are a company with an outstanding reputation for the quality of our products, largely in the aerospace and medical industries. To know that our parts will be directly helping to save lives means a lot to our company and our workforce.

“We have already manufactured ten thousand components for the ventilators and we stand ready to produce more.”

Marcus Addison, managing director of the Addison Group of Companies said: “I would also like to put on record our appreciation to our fantastic NHS and all keys workers who are carrying out their duties, keeping us safe, battling this virus and saving lives.

“We are playing our part in this crisis by helping create enough components for the additional ventilators. I want to thank every one of them for their determination and hard work around the clock."

Blackpool North and Cleveleys MP Paul Maynard said: “I am pleased to have a company in my constituency with the requisite skills and experiences to be able to turn their hands, with such speed and dedication, to support our nation and make a contribution in this way.

I know the team at Addison is working extremely hard to support this challenge.

"I look forward to the opportunity, in the future, to visit the company and meet the workers who have stepped up to support our NHS at this crucial time.”