Bra-Vo (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Bra-Vo

One of Triumph's two new hot air balloonsTRIUMPH International has turned busts into a boom and has announced a £10m expansion.

The lingerie company's British headquarters are in Groundwell, Swindon, and it has said it is expanding its warehouse by a third.

There are 442 people employed at the Swindon site, with 100 in sales across the country and 340 in the warehouse.

The work will start at the beginning of next year and will bring the warehouse up to the 26,950sq metres about the size of three football pitches over three floors.

The layout of the warehouse will be updated with some hi-tech automated equipment introduced.

There are no plans for any more people to be taken on, but Triumph says that the cash injection is a vote of confidence in Swindon. Making the announcement, Triumph's UK managing director for marketing and sales, David Horn-buckle, said: "The Triumph group has recognised our growth potential and I am delighted that £10m has been committed to this project.

"The new warehouse will enable us to give an even better service to our customers and meet their ever-increasing demands. Our new systems will be extremely sophisticated and automated giving us even greater accuracy, flexibility and speed of response."

The work is due to take about a year.

Triumph spokeswoman Sue Loder said the news was particularly cheering because there has been a stream of bad news in Britain across the manufacturing industry and high street as a whole this year.

"Looking back at Triumph's history, one of the reasons for its success is being prepared to invest even when times are tough, and look forward to the future optimistically," she said.

"Also, we are expanding to other parts of the world.

"Although we are not planning to take on any more people, this will give security to those who are there, which is of paramount importance. It's a vote of confidence in Swindon and the UK."

Last weekend Triumph launched its two new hot air balloons at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta. They feature different pictures of the American model Liz Zara, the face and body of Triumph. Including the envelope, wires, and basket each balloon is just over 30m tall more than 16 times Liz's height.

Tom Morton Business reporter