The specialist metal and plastic manufacturer announced yesterday an investment of $6.15 million to expand its operations.

The investment will create 75 new jobs in Ballarat and 50 in Horsham while securing the future of 70 existing positions in Ballarat.

Regional and Rural Development Minister Jacinta Allan, in Ballarat yesterday for the announcement, said the State Government supported the investment through its Regional Industry Investment Program, but was unable to put an exact figure on the contribution.

"Our support of companies like CMI Industrial, despite the challenges of the global financial crisis and increased competitiveness from countries like India and China, is helping to ensure businesses continue to invest in Victoria," Ms Allan said.

CMI has weathered a turbulent year, with the global recession forcing it to cut their employees' working week to three-and-a-half days from May to September last year.

"Everyone can now see the sacrifice they made by going to a three-and-a-half day week to save jobs was worthwhile," CMI site manager Stephen Casey said.

Ms Allan described the announcement as a "real vote of confidence for manufacturing in the region".

"The support will see the introduction of new research and design activities, precision machining centres, and robotic and computer numerical control machining capabilities at the Ballarat and Horsham sites," she said.

Mr Casey said the investment would allow the re-development of some of the older areas of the plant.

"The initial steps will be to see what machinery needs to be bought in, what skill levels we need to run it and what retraining is required."

It is expected the expansion will boost Ballarat's manufacturing skills base and give local supply chains better access to state-of-the-art metal and plastic component production capabilities.