The member for Charlton and Minister for Industry and Innovation met with local workers and senior management to talk about the company’s growth and the manufacturing industry’s future.

Ampcontrol supplies electrical and electronic solutions to the mining, power and energy sectors, such as electrical transformers, communications systems and gas monitoring systems.

Mr Combet said he remembered opening the plant almost four years ago and noted the workforce had since doubled, and turnover had tripled.

‘‘They have geared their production and business strategy into the mining industry,’’ he said.

‘‘Ampcontrol are meeting the current economic challenges by embracing innovation as part of their long term strategy.

‘‘It is an example of how the manufacturing industry can benefit from the resources boom.’’

Redundancies in steel and aluminium smelters, such as Norsk Hydro in Kurri Kurri and Tomago Aluminium, have been a cause of concern for the Hunter workforce.

A high Australian dollar and the falling price for aluminium was blamed for the cuts and Toyota and Holden have also axed jobs around Australia.

But Mr Combet said he saw a bright future for manufacturing in the Hunter provided companies realised the need to improve productivity through innovative projects.

‘‘This is the heartland of electricity generators and it’s important that they [manufacturing companies] can gear their industry towards that and the mining industry,’’ he said.

‘‘They’ve got to ask themselves; how do I innovate, how do I improve efficiency and how do I take opportunities from the economic growth in Asia?’’