Ceramics hub set to deliver double-digit growth for pioneering company

An innovative materials technology company in the Midlands is planning significant growth, as plans for a world-leading ceramics centre move a step forward.

Lucideon said the proposed Ceramic Park in Stoke-on-Trent, recently debated in Parliament, would herald a new era for the city-region – and provide it with a platform for double-digit growth.

Lucideon, which has its headquarters in Penkhull and laboratories and offices across the globe, is setting up a National Advanced Sintering Centre (NASC) that will be located at Ceramic Park with the intention of attracting global investment partners.

Tony Kinsella, chief executive, said the company was working with 10 of the UK’s most renowned Higher Education Institutions to bring the NASC to the city.

Lucideon, which originated from the Stoke-on-Trent’s British Ceramics Research Association, was established in 1948, in the heartland of the ceramics industry.

Today th business employs more than 200 staff around the world with the vast majority based in Stoke-on-Trent, providing highly skilled opportunities in an area looking to utilise its historic links to the Potteries industry to tap into new and emerging technologies in both the traditional and advanced ceramics markets.

The nature of its work requires top-flight expertise in science, technology and engineering, with 65% of employees holding a university degree and more than 30 staff members having Masters or PhDs.

Mr Kinsella said: “I would like to thank Jack Brereton, Stoke-on-Trent South MP, for securing the debate around the proposed Ceramic Park to be based in Stoke-on-Trent. This new centre could help create a £1bn ceramic industry in and around the city.

“Lucideon is committed to the growth of the traditional and advanced ceramics sectors by providing its materials expertise, facilities and pioneering spirit to expedite the journey from research and development to commercial products and processes.

“With world-leading research, pilot plants and commercialisation services, coupled with education and training to develop a new generation of commercially-minded scientists and engineers, the Ceramic Park will become the driver of economic growth and attract national and international investment into the city.

“Relocating our business to the Park will allow us to double our workforce, and to develop and support the hoped-for National Advanced Sintering Centre (NASC).”

He said the NASC would deliver a step change in the development and production of ceramic products that could not be made by conventional methods.

It would be joined by the Applied Materials Research, Innovation and Commercialisation Company (AMRICC), which has been established by Lucideon to fast track advanced materials and materials processes into commercial products.

“Together both the NASC facility and AMRICC would lead the way in developing the advanced ceramics technologies of the future which, in turn, will lead to job creation, productivity and innovation improvements and an upskilling of the industry,” he added.

“They would build on the inherited assets the city is renowned for and put the region on a pathway to a new era, which will play a significant part in the social and economic life of the area overall.”