A new team of mentors is to be recruited to help manufacturers on the largest industrial estate in Warwickshire raise productivity and cut costs.

Under the Warwickshire County Council programme, manufacturing companies in and around Bayton Road industrial estate will have their own personal advisers - or business improvement partners - to bring direct help to the shopfloor.

Around 12 people are expected to be taken on to help the 200 or so businesses in the area.

Project manager Rob Godfrey said the scheme, which will work with The Hub business resource centre, was not about giving advice but about providing manufacturers with practical assistance to turn around their business.

"A mentoring programme such as this is a way for SME manufacturers to get outside the four walls of their plant and see how others do things better than you," he said.

County business support officer Richard Sweeney said he was keen to encourage companies to take advantage of the expertise and support they can offer.

He added: "The difference with the mentoring programme is that the assistance can be practical and mentors can offer 'hands-on' help."

One company which has offered mentoring advice is Bayton Road aerospace firm Arrowsmith Engineering, which is a first tier supplier to Rolls-Royce.

The firm, which employs 30 staff, is diversifying into the healthcare area, where the rewards are potentially high in a market growing at five per cent a year, partly due to more NHS spending.

Commercial manager Ben Kitson said: "We have been able to share our expertise with other companies with great effect, including some impressive surges in production and turnover.

"The benefits of mentoring speak for themselves and some participants will undoubtedly be creating new jobs for the region's manufacturing base as a result of what they achieve."