CENTRAL Devon MP Mel Stride visited C S Engineering in Crediton recently to join the family business, which is based on Lords Meadow Industrial Estate, in celebrating their 32-year anniversary.

Mr Stride met with Managing Director Rob Pett and his son Darren, as well as his sister-in-law Kath and her son Jason who both work for the company, which provides precision engineering services such as welding, machine part manufacturing, shot blasting, metal painting and fabrication.

After giving Mr Stride a tour of their workshop and a demonstration of their shot blasting, Mr Pett said: “We are very proud to celebrate our 32-year anniversary and to mark it by showing Mel around the business and talking about our plans for the future.

“Everything we do here is done by hand so we aren’t dependent on machinery to get the job done. Although some might consider what we do a dying art, our business is going from strength-to-strength, serving both domestic and commercial customers including many local farmers.”

Mr Stride, who started his own business and ran it for 20 years before entering Parliament in 2010, added: “I was very pleased to spend time with a thriving local business and the Pett’s should rightly be very proud of reaching such a landmark.

“In a global market where technology and machinery is playing an increasingly important role, it is good to see such highly-skilled handcrafted precision engineering alive and well in Central Devon.”