By Chris Maguire
Manufacturers across the North West are gearing up to increase investment and recruitment in 2014.
That was the over-riding message from an upbeat manufacturing conference in Manchester on Thursday (12 September 2013) attended by more than 300 businesses and professionals from the manufacturing sector.
The Manufacturing Matters conference at Salford City Stadium coincided with the publication of a report by the New Economy, which found the North West region retains the largest manufacturing sector in the whole of the UK with more than 323,000 employees.
Stephen Radley, director of policy at the manufacturers’ organisation EEF said manufacturing was forecast to grow by 2 per cent in 2013.
“After quite a bumpy ride it seems there are some signs of getting back in track,” he said. “But there’s still a lot more to be done to make sure we take advantages of these opportunities.”
He said EEF was receiving weekly inquiries from companies wanting to re-shore parts of their manufacturing process back from overseas.
“We’re starting to see more companies bring back some activity back to Britain,” he said. “Many companies have learnt from experience about the need to be really close to their market.”
He said it was vital to have more investment. “Manufacturing output is still 10 per cent below where it was before the recession but there are some signs that we’re heading in the right direction,” he explained.
Richard Jeffery, director of the Business Growth Hub and the Manufacturing Advisory Service, said: “From what our MAS advisers tell us there’s a real growing confidence in the sector. Growth and expansion keep being mentioned.”
Delegates also heard from two growing North West manufacturers. Knutsford-based Oliver Valves saw its turnover go up last year by 56 per cent to £65m and is closing in on £100m after securing its biggest ever contract worth £13m.
Managing director David Cornwell said: “The North West is the greatest engineering export area in this country. Our founder Michael Oliver’s mantra is ‘it can be done’. No is not in his vocabulary.
“As a business we’ve continued to have growth in the recession. We went out and took the market to a global place. If you want to be in overseas areas employ local people but employ local people.”
Terts Ashibi, heads up programme management at MedImmune, which is a fully owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca.
Earlier this year AstraZeneca announced it would be relocating 1,600 roles from its base in Alderley Park but Ashibi said the future of its own base in Speke, which employs 400 people, couldn’t be better.
“One of reasons AstraZeneca bought us was our pipeline of 120 products,” he said. “We’re growing very quickly but we’re struggling to get that skills base. That’s the challenge for us as a company and the solution starts in the classroom.
“The company has big plans for the facility in Speke in terms of expansion. There will be more jobs and more indirect jobs in the supply chain.”
The Manufacturing Matters conference was backed by North West Business Insider and sponsored by the Manufacturing Advisory Service, EEF, NatWest and Business Growth Hub.
Source Article from http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/north-west/98470-upbeat-manufacturers-geared-expansion
