The region that builds the Range Rover Evoque is today launching a campaign to build upon its strengths as a major UK manufacturing centre.
The sector already provides 53,000 jobs and puts £2.7 billion into the Liverpool City Region, (LCR), economy and at a time when manufacturing faces challenges in the global economy the Local Enterprise Partnership, (LEP), is investigating how we can lead the way in a manufacturing revival.
The LCR LEP is working with dozens of local manufacturing business leaders, the two leading Liverpool Universities, the six Merseyside local authorities, and the University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing on Making It, a campaign looking at what the areas of local expertise are, what we want to make in the future and how we can work together to make that happen. This follows a national Government-led exercise delivered by the Technology Strategy Board.
Alan Welby, LEP Executive Director, Key Growth Sectors, said: “Making It will provide real support to make our manufacturing sector globally competitive. Manufacturing makes a vital contribution to the LCR economy and this campaign will prioritise our most valuable manufacturing opportunities and ensure the future of a thriving local manufacturing economy.”
The first of four Making It industry workshops has set the scene for the project and participants from leading City Region manufacturing companies were asked to consider the vision for the future of their sector.
The next workshops will identify possible focus areas, how they present the best opportunities and how those areas can be supported. The conclusions will be linked into the national study and then an action plan with the next steps for the region will be drawn up and presented at a conference in the Autumn.
Liverpool City Region has an exciting history as a manufacturing leader, making everything from soap at Port Sunlight, sugar at Liverpool’s Tate and Lyle refinery, and of course the world famous Jaguar Land Rover cars and 4x4s. Unilever still employs thousands in Port Sunlight and recently announced a £40m investment in the 120 acre site, and Jaguar Land Rover in Halewood employs 4,500 people and they are expanding onto a second site in the area with a 405,000 sq ft warehouse in Ellesmere Port.
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce recently announced that recruitment in manufacturing locally has been rising since 2011 with 70% of manufacturing firms recruiting in the last quarter of 2012.
Chris Oliver, Managing Director of Mast Group PLC, an independent world class manufacturer and supplier of diagnostic products for clinical, industrial and veterinary testing with its head office in Bootle, is taking part in the workshops. He said: “We are never going to be the lowest cost manufacturers in the world and we can’t just build our economy on call centres and coffee shops. We need to be able to exploit our excellent research base and Making It allows us to think properly about the industries and sectors where we have the local expertise and where we should target that support.”
The project is being overseen by a Steering Group to provide strategy guidance and advice, led by Nigel Weatherill, Vice Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.
Professor Weatherill explained: “The Making It Programme will look at the future of manufacturing, what we make, how we make it and what we should be making in the future. Liverpool has always been an innovative city and now is the time to work out how we can build on that innovation and establish ourselves as market leaders once more. We are working closely with the private sector to make sure that we develop the right plans for the future and offer the best support to grow our manufacturing industries.”
Dr Malcolm Hannaby, Lead Technologist in High Value Manufacturing at the Technology Strategy Board said: “Last year the Institute for Manufacturing worked with us to take input from industry at a national level to give insights into the future UK manufacturing landscape. We are now using this work to target Government investments in manufacturing innovation. The LCR LEP Making It campaign will give companies in the region clear line of sight to these investments. ”
Alan Fox, Relationship Manager in Scottish Power’s Cities Team, attended the workshop which he described as a very well structured, intense day. He said: “One of the important future considerations to emerge was the need to retain expertise in the area and to make it an attractive place to stay and work, or to move to. All the regions are in competition so retaining business and expertise in the area helps us all. By planning a strategy to deal with this now shows real foresight and I am very pleased to be part of the study.”