Borehamwood-based cinema screen manufacturers Harkness Hall is planning an expansion at its Station Road factory, allowing it to produce tens of thousands more square feet of screen each week.

The a move will see between ten and fifteen new staff hired.

Harkness Hall, which holds the world record for making the world's largest silver screen, now in Sydney, Australia, has submitted plans to demolish old buildings and replace them with a single, seven metre high, 930 square metre production building.

Managing Director John Lawton said demolishing old buildings, built by Xerox when it occupied the site, the company would be able to use space at their premises more efficiently. He said: "We have been expanding for some time. We recently took over half of a GEC building in Rowley Lane. Our current capacity is 50,000 square feet a week, but it's not enough. We've got orders for more. Through this development it will be closer to 70,000."

Mr Lawton added recent years have seen his company, which he described as the world leader exporting to 65 countries, and more than double its staff from 66 to 155. "We currently buy in our packaging, but the expansion will allow us to make our own."

The company has another large factory in the USA, occupying 50,000 square feet, in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

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