300 more skilled jobs at NW science base
US medical products manufacturer Thermo Fisher Scientific plans to more than double the size of its workforce in Runcorn over the next five years, creating 300 more skilled jobs.
The boost – hailed by North West Development Agency chief executive Steven Broomhead as a “major vote of confidence in the region” – was announced yesterday by senior Thermo Fisher executive Dr Yuh-Geng Tsay, who was opening the company’s new 85.000sq ft £4.5m facility.
Dr Tsay, who is based in San Francisco and is president of the Fortune 500 company’s specialty diagnostics division said: “We are delighted to invest here in creating a centre of excellence for our anatomical pathology business.
“We already added 60 people when we moved here and we can easily expand here and in the next three to five years we expect to add another 300 people as part of the centre of excellence plan.
“We have made a significant investment here with 85,000 sq ft facility and we have room to add another 60,000 sq ft.
“The goal of our company is to help our customers make the world a healthier, cleaner and safer place and we will continue to invest in any knowledge or technology that will benefit our business.”
The new facility houses the $110bn-turnover company’s anatomical pathology and chromatography consumables businesses. This includes products and services to improve the detection and diagnosis of cancer and advance research for drug development.
The move to Manor Park, Runcorn, from nearby Astmoor was the result of the planned new Mersey Crossing development.
The North West Development Agency, which worked with Thermo Fisher to identify the site, welcomed the announcement on new jobs.
Chief executive Steven Broomhead said:”We are very pleased by this investment – it’s a tremendous project that started in October 2007 and there has been a lot of effort, grit and determination to get it done. It is a big statement around business confidence that a business of global reach and significance is investing in science here.
“The bio-medical sector is one of the most important in our economy and is a high growth area for us.
“I am delighted to hear of the plans to grow from 200 to 500 people here. These are not just jobs they are high value jobs.”
The audience of around 200 academics, scientists, customers, guests heard from Dr Roger Platt, chairman of the North West Science Council, who called for the economy to be “rebalanced” towards science and manufacturing, after the collapse of a “spurious debt-driven” financial system.
Harry Ritchie, who is business development director at the Runcorn site said the facility was centred around making instruments to help scientists analyse tissue samples – often used in the detection of cancer – and also in supporting a process called chromatography, a popular laboratory test used to identify components in a substance.
He said: “This is a great location for us – we work closely with the universities in Manchester and Liverpool, because you don’t invent things when you’re working alone -it’s all about collaboration.”
Mr Ritchie, who has been with Thermo Fisher Scientific for 20 years, predicted the new jobs would be centred around chromatography and also in immuno-histochemistry.”
