Gooch & Housego, a manufacturer and supplier of fibre optic solutions, could create up to 60 jobs thanks to an injection of £1.2m of government money.

The company, based in Torquay, Devon, works across the aerospace, defence, industrial, life science and scientific research sectors.

Environment minister Dan Rogerson announced the £1.2m backing from the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), saying it will be put toward the company’s £18m expansion plan.

Andrew Robertson, senior vice president for the system technology group at Gooch and Housego, says the RGF money will help the company’s growth strategy over the coming decade.

“The fund has allowed us to recruit six new people already and we hope to add 30 more to the team in the coming three years with this number growing to 60 in the next 10,” says Robertson.

“This will allow us to add many new skills to our research and development team, build our talent pool of photonics engineers, and continue to expand our production facilities – crucial to securing our long-term growth.”

The government says that so far £210m of RGF money has been invested in businesses across the South West of England, helping to create 36,000 jobs, as companies have committed to investing an additional £700m.

RGF Round Six, which will make at least £200m available to companies across England, has just closed with 174 applications totalling more than £800m. Of these, 32 bids worth £109m in total were received from the South West. Successful bidders will be announced in the New Year.