Region underlines importance of £19.6bn manufacturing sector

A RAFT of measures are being launched to promote and celebrate manufacturing in the North West – long regarded as the sector’s spiritual home.

Among the initiatives is a £9.9m manufacturers’ resource efficiency programme as well as a new web site for manufacturers which aims to promote success.

Two government-backed ‘cluster mark’ awards have also been distributed to both the aerospace and chemicals sectors in the North West, underlining the region’s role as Britain’s ‘manufacturing capital’.

These initiatives have been launched to coincide with Manufacturing Week, a long-running campaign designed to promote the success of the sector, which runs until the end of the week.

Manufacturing generates just under a fifth of the North West’s Gross Value Added (GVA) and is the only sector in the region which has an average GVA per head higher than the national figure.

Commenting on Manufacturing Week, David Ost, the North West regional director for manufacturers’ organisation EEF, said: “There is a general misconception we’ve lost our manufacturing base – yet the UK is the sixth largest manufacturing economy in the world and the North West makes a huge contribution to this.

“It’s time to debunk this myth once and for all, and that’s why we’re staging Manufacturing Week and this debate helping to tell the story of the industry’s success.”

Chief executive of The Manufacturing Institute, Dr Julie Madigan, added: “The gaping chasm between the negative perception and positive reality of UK manufacturing urgently needs redressing. 

“The fact is that manufacturing drives 75%  of UK exports, contributes one seventh of national wealth and sustains around 5 million jobs – just some of the many reasons why manufacturing remains the bedrock of our economy.

“In the North West alone, manufacturing contributes £19.6bn to the regional coffers and accounts for one third of aerospace output, Europe’s biggest centre for biomanufacturing, 25% of the UK chemicals workforce, and the UK’s highest concentration of food and drink manufacturing businesses.”

As part of Manufacturing Week, a national debate will be held in Halewood, near Liverpool, at the Jaguar Land Rover Visitor Centre on Tuesday.

The debate is intended to bring together manufacturers, influential thinkers, commentators and the public to discuss the future role of manufacturing in the economy.

Steven Broomhead, chief executive of the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), said: “The North West’s manufacturing sector is the biggest of any English region and remains a major driver for improving GVA.

“Manufacturing Week is an excellent opportunity to promote the strength of the Northwest Manufacturing sector and we are delighted to be involved in so much activity surrounding this vital sector.

“The NWDA is working with partners across the Northwest to create a modern manufacturing sector in the region that will be innovative, enterprising, highly skilled, and well led and this week is providing us with a platform to shout about it.”
 
Members of the panel will include: Alan Walker, manufacturing controller at Jaguar Land Rover; global supply chain director at Stockport-based soap and shampoo manufacturer PZ Cussons, Richard Adamson; the EEF’s chief economist, Lee Hopley; deputy chair of the NWDA, Vanda Murray; and Dr Julie Madigan.

The ‘Cluster Mark’ is a new national initiative being coordinated by the government to support the ‘UK Manufacturing Strategy’ and as such is primarily aimed at recognising manufacturing excellence.

Cluster Marks are presented in recognition of the quality of the sector within different regions.

The two organisations within the North West which have achieved the new ‘North West Cluster Mark’ award this year are ‘BioNow’ – which represents the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries – as well as the North West Aerospace Alliance.

Both organisations will now go forward to represent the region in the ‘National UK Cluster Mark Awards’ at an event staged by the Department for Business (BIS) in London later this month.

Manufacturing Week also provides the platform for the launch of a new website called thisismanufacturing.co.uk .

Funded by the NWDA, thisismanufacturing.co.uk shows what North West manufacturers are doing to succeed, through a wealth of interviews, articles, opinions, videos and podcasts about business development, training, skills, funding, innovation and range of other business issues.

By shining a spotlight on the steps modern manufacturers are taking to thrive, the web portal aims to provide inspiration to other business people in the sector.

The website will also be able to provide advice to manufacturers wanting to gain access to a £9.9m business support programme to improve their ‘resource efficiency.’

This will include help with reducing the use of energy, water and raw materials.

The programme – which runs until 2013 – will: support 1,250 small and medium-sized enterprises across the region; generate cost savings of £60m for those businesses: while also saving 255,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and water savings.

Additionally, it will create 240 jobs in the region and safeguard a further 500 while increasing sales by £25m and safeguarding existing sales of £60m.

Dr Julie Madigan, of the Manufacturing Institute, said that the necessity for Manufacturing Week to explode some of the myths which exist within the sector had never been more “imperative”.

She said: ““Manufacturing has talked itself down for too long.

“It is time to explode some of the popular myths that have built up around the sector and to celebrate the massive contribution manufacturing continues to make to the economy.

“It is also time to salute the ingenuity and hard work of those nimble, innovative businesses which not only compete in, but often lead, the global market.

“With a belief in its own destiny, UK and North West manufacturing can meet the varied challenges the sector is facing head on, and play a vital part in the future prosperity of UK plc.”