Chatteris-based ​Vita-Nova Solutions enjoys record sales and looks to recruit more staff

A family-run business in Chatteris is enjoying a run of outstanding growth.

​Vita-Nova Solutions, based in Teal Close, provides automation services such as food packing robots for production lines, say sales are its best ever and it is looking to recruit extra staff.

It has also embarked on the development of a product that director Paul Millard (57) expects to attract worldwide demand over the next year.

And he says a vital component in the success is the free business support service Fenland for Business over the last three years.

He said: “It has been key to everything we have done.

“If they are not supplying us a grant they are supporting us in other ways. They have been vital in what we have been doing.”

Last year, Vita-Nova Solutions was one of eight firms to be awarded grant funding to help develop its growth plans in the first round of the Fenland Investment in Business Programme.

The firm used its grant to buy a 3D printer to design and manufacture parts for its automation systems itself which means the parts are cheaper and made quicker.

It is signing a raft of contracts, with one worth £750,000. Contracts are up to almost double that of its previous biggest sales.

Mr Millard has lived in Chatteris since he was 19 and worked initially for his family’s former-business KLM Manufacturing, in Earith, which has now been sold on, before progressing his career elsewhere.

Mr Millard, his son, design director Keanu (26), and Paul’s wife Cheryl launched Vita-Nova Solutions at the end of 2019.

Fenland District Council’s portfolio holder for economic growth Cllr Ian Benney said: “This team is an incredible asset to Fenland and the feedback we get from the business that engage with it says it all."

Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Dr Nik Johnson said: “We are working to make sure funding coming to the region to boost business growth really does provide effective support after many unprecedented economic challenges.

"This is a great example of partnership working with Fenland District Council to make a real difference to an important local employer’s plans for growth.”

​