Through its strong industrial legacy Manchester has emerged as a key UK location for both traditional and advanced manufacturing. The region’s established manufacturing operations have moved up the value chain and become knowledge, capital and skills-intensive, leading the way in advanced engineering. Manchester’s engineering base feeds into major national and global industry supply chains including aerospace, automotive, chemicals and energy.
The city region’s reputation as a leading engineering hub has helped attract global companies including Siemens, Hitachi, BASF, Thales, Scapa, Renold, Luxfer and PZ Cussons. Most recently Spanish-owned conglomerate Sociedad Anónima Industrias Celulosa Aragonesa (SAICA) invested £250 million to build a recycled paper mill. Investment has not been restricted to manufacturing operations; the region also attracts high level R&D operations like that of Shimadzu Europe which has its European base in Trafford Park for core technical R&D, contributing to technological development in the fields of mass spectrometry and surface analysis. Furthermore, Nanoco Technologies has an established research and manufacturing headquarters in Manchester through which it partners major R&D and blue-chip industrial organizations in the development of applications incorporating semiconductor nanoparticles, known as quantum dots.
The supply chain and operational advantages of being located in the city region were reflected in the recent KPMG Competitive Alternative Locations study, which ranked Manchester as the 8th most cost competitive location for Manufacturing in North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Individual sector rankings were particularly high for the following:
| Industry | Operation | Index rating (US=100) | Rank |
| Agri-Food | Food processing | 95.6 | 3 |
| Plastics | Plastic products | 95.0 | 5 |
| Metal components | Metal machining | 95.3 | 7 |
| Aerospace | Aircraft parts | 95.7 | 7 |
| Precision manufacturing | Precision components | 96.9 | 9 |
| Automotive | Auto parts | 96.7 | 9 |
| Manufacturing average | (Average of 11 operations) | 95.8 | 8 |
Base: Four largest US Cities- New York, Los Angels, Chicago and Dallas Fort Worth= 100.0
(Source: Competitive Alternatives: KPMG’s Guide to International Business Locations)
A major element of Manchester’s attraction for engineering companies is the ready supply of skills, from operatives to senior engineers. Across Manchester’s higher education institutions over 4,100 students graduate every year in engineering and science-related degrees, while there are 44,800 engineering and science students studying at universities located within an hour’s drive of Manchester.
To find out more about the advanced engineering in Manchester City Region, please contact:
Sylvie Morton, Business Development Manager Sylvie.Morton@midas.org.uk