AN Enniskillen company is investing £1.5 million to increase production following a major export contract from Ford.

Kent Plastics, on the Derrychara Road, employs 125 people making decorative plastic mouldings including badges, lenses, mirrors, and instrument panels for the automotive industry.

The new contract, for which the company will be the sole supplier of decorative rear panels for the 1997 Ford Mondeo, is expected to result 40 additional jobs by early next year.

The investment is being supported by a grant of £410,000 from the IDB.

Kent Plastics' managing director Mr Dennis McKinney said the contract resulted from a new strategy aimed at expanding business with the automotive sector.

It will also increase the company's export business; Kent will be despatching the panels to the Ford plant at Genk in Belgium, where the Mondeo is assembled.

Kent Plastics was set up in 1967, and was owned by the American US based Ball Corporation, one of the world's leading producers of decorative plastic components, until it was taken over in a management buy out in 1991.