Advanced Manufacturing
Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Manchester was the world’s first industrial city, with the first factories and industrial estates; it’s where Ford built their first cars in Europe. Today, the city is at the heart of the UK’s largest manufacturing and advanced engineering cluster - the Northern Powerhouse and is the gateway to the North West, the rest of the U.K. and Europe.
Whether you are looking for a laboratory for testing or large-scale manufacturing, Manchester has the infrastructure in place to support innovation, business growth and commercialisation. From research and development, architectural services and civil construction; to assembly, distribution and technical consultancy; our companies are well-established across the whole business life cycle.
The region’s supply chain, talent and access to market are why businesses such as Jaguar Land Rover, ARM, AECOM, BAE Systems, Balfour Beatty, Cargill, Heinz, Hitachi, Jacobs Engineering, Kellogg’s, NXP, Siemens, Unilever and WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff have a presence here.
Companies located here have access to some of the best global talent with access to five universities which collectively have 25 Nobel Prize winners, over 100,000 students, 14,000 students studying STEM subjects and specialist strengths in advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, 3D printing, data analytics and electronics. Manchester also has a highly skilled manufacturing workforce of nearly 115,000 people working in areas as diverse as aerospace, defence, electronics systems, software engineering and transport.
Advanced Manufacturing and Low Carbon Factsheet
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Sub Sectors
Manchester has the infrastructure in place to support innovation, business growth and commercialisation.
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#1 of 15 Tech Cities
(exl. London) – CBRE Tech City Report 2022
#2 large city for connectivity
fDi European Cities of the Future 2019/20
UK’s leading city for attracting FDI outside London
EY's 2023 UK Attractiveness Survey
UK’s most entrepreneurial city
Business Cloud report 2021
#3 Best City in the World
Time Out 2021
UK’s most liveable city
The Economist’s Global Liveability Index 2022