THE US engineering company Shuttleworth has said it plans to almost double its workforce in Athy, Co Kildare, to more than 100 over the next three years.

Shuttleworth, which makes conveyor belt assembly lines for the electronics, food, and automotive sectors, expects to double capacity over the next five years.

The expansion is being fuelled by a number of high profile contracts won by the Irish based company, which installs its assembly line systems in factories in Europe and South East Asia. Shuttleworth's business development manager, Mr Trevor Macnamara, said the company had a turnover of about £4 million, having grown from £2.5 million two years ago.

The company recently won a £1 million contract with IBM to supply assembly line technology to a new disk drive plant in Budapest and is currently manufacturing the third of 11 systems for the factory. Mr Macnamara said the IBM business would give Shuttleworth's Athy operation "instant credibility with potential customers around Europe".

Shuttleworth makes complete assembly lines in Kildare and then breaks them down to small parts which can be shipped to customers in Europe and SouthEast Asia. The company's client list includes Apple, Sony, Unilever, Ford, and Fujitsu. "The kind of conveyor we make" lends itself to all sorts of applications," according to Mr Macnamara.

In the 15 years since it started production in Ireland, Shuttleworth has built about 1,500 assembly lines. Most of the company's business is in Britain and Germany, but during the past 12 months Shuttleworth has built assembly lines for Seagate in Clonmel, Motorola in Swords and 3Com in Dublin.

Shuttleworth, which describes itself as "a micro multinational", employs a total of 300 people worldwide at plants in the US, Japan and Ireland, and sales and service centres in Belgium, Japan and Singapore.