CARLISLE Brass is looking forward to continued growth following the appointment of a new managing director.

Rachel Attwood has been appointed the new woman at the company’s helm.

The firm is the largest developer of architectural hardware in the UK, supplying door and window furniture to housebuilders and builders’ merchants.

It employs 160 people in the UK – most of them at its head office at Parkhouse Road, Kingstown Industrial Estate, Carlisle – and also has a factory in China’s Zheijang Province and offices in Ireland and Dubai, serving the Middle East.

The business was founded by Robin Graham in 1986 who sold it to Heywood Williams in a £48m deal 20 years’ later.

It is now owned by Arran Isle, which acquired it when Heywood Williams went into administration in 2009.

Mrs Attwood, 47, has a background in advertising, marketing and sales, mostly in building products.

She joined Arran Isle in 2010 as head of sales at Mila, a door and window hardware business in Daventry, then in 2012 she became managing director of another Arran Isle subsidiary, Window Ware, in Bedford.

Carlisle Brass’ last managing diector, Jason Anderson, left three years ago since when Martin Wardhaugh, chief executive of Arran Isle’s hardware and fenestration division, has been acting managing director. Mrs Attwood is married with a six-year-old son, and she and her husband David are hoping to buy and renovate a home in Scotby.

Carlisle Brass’ fortunes are aligned with those of the construction sector and she believes it is in a strong position to grow as more new-build housing developments come on stream.

She said: “Carlisle Brass managed very well through the recession because we’ve grown through new business. We haven’t suffered as others have.

“The brand is well recognised and we are a market leader.

“Retailers need a hook to get customers to spend money in a recession and they do that by offering the number one brand.”

The firm supplies the UK’s 10 largest housebuilders – it recently secured Barratt as a customer – and Cumbria’s biggest housebuilder Story Homes.

Trade customers include the likes of Jewson, Screwfix and Travis Perkins.

Meanwhile, Carlisle Brass has appointed Angus Grant head of business development.

The 35-year-old former pupil of Trinity School first joined the firm as a student, working in the warehouse as a summer holiday job.

He rejoined full-time in 2006 to work for the Chinese operation as export business development manager.

Two years later he moved to Dubai to set up the subsidiary there. His new role sees him return to Carlisle.