Industry Strengths

Manufacturing

Wirral is at the heart of the UK’s manufacturing renaissance.

Major engineering companies making innovative products from offshore wind turbine components to the next generation of cars, trains and ships. Thousands of new jobs are being created as local firms collaborate with global OEMs like JLR, GM and Airbus.

Manufacturing employment is a strong component of the Wirral workforce, with proportionately more residents working in engineering and related manufacturing activities than in the wider region or across England as a whole.

The majority of Wirral’s manufacturing jobs are in higher skilled areas of machine manufacture and engineering, particularly in aerospace, pharmaceutical and automotive sectors.

Wirral’s catchment is a hotbed of high-value manufacturing. The proportion of the manufacturing workforce employed in high-technology activities in the region is around 10% - in Wirral it is 21%.

Automotive

Wirral is ready to be the preferred home for automotive suppliers.

For companies that supply the automotive industry, we’ve got three major car plants on our doorstep. GM, Jaguar Land Rover and Toyota are within 15 miles; Bentley Motors and Leyland Trucks are within an hour’s drive. More than 95% of UK car production can be reached within 3 hours of Wirral.

The GM plant at Ellesmere Part is the home of the Astra and will see significant investment and expansion as it prepares to produce the new Astra in 2015.

Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood factory employs 4,500 people assembling the Range Rover Evoque and Freelander2 models.

Toyota’s Deeside engine plant exports components to South Africa, Turkey, Brazil and Japan and was the first overseas plant to produce Toyota's class leading hybrid engines.

A proven reputation for advanced manufacturing and a workforce with the right engineering skills makes Wirral the right location for automotive projects. And the new Advanced Supplier Parkon our Enterprise Zone is the perfect site.

Offshore Wind

Wirral is ready to be a hub for offshore energy.

With existing wind farms off the Wirral coast and thousands of turbines planned for the Irish Sea, the opportunities to create a significant hub of activity is clear. The Liverpool City Region has been designated as a Centre for Offshore Renewable Engineering, the only such designation on the west coast of England.

The world famous Cammell Laird has already secured significant offshore wind contracts and Denmark’s DONG Energy and Germany’s RWE are investing in the region.Local firms like Osiris Projects play a crucial role in supporting the sector with oceanographic mapping and surveys.

Wirral offers the renewable industry an excellent range of opportunities for both manufacturing and pre-assembly as well as operation and maintenance bases for wind farms.

Science & Research

Wirral is ready to push the boundaries of knowledge.

For more than a century, Wirral has been known as a place where innovators and scientists have created new products and treatments that have changed the world.

Wirral is a key location for Unilever's operations. Port Sunlight is home to its largest European manufacturing site, producing well-known laundry and homecare. Wirral is also home to one of Unilever's six global research and development centres, driving innovation in household brands.

Bristol-Myers Squibb, a global leader in medical innovations, has a major research and development plant at Moreton. The site has a successful track record including the first ever human clinical trial of an inhibitor for high blood pressure, and creating innovative technologies for the delivery of diabetes treatments.

Wirral’s workforce includes a high proportion of high-technology manufacturing activities including aerospace, pharmaceutical and chemical roles. More than 230,000 students attend the 13 universities within Wirral’s catchment area, with around a third studying science-based subjects – much higher than the national average.

Logistics

Wirral is ready to be your national and global gateway.

More than 36,000 people are employed in logistics and distribution roles in the Wirral employment catchment. Whether moving goods on land, sea or air, Wirral offers the optimum location for logistics operations.

Road: Wirral is within easy reach of the UK’s motorway infrastructure. Most of the UK’s largest and busiest docks and airports are reachable within the statutory four and a half hour HGV driving limit, including the largest seaports and the busiest freight handling airports.

Air: Manchester Airport is a one hour HGV drive of most Wirral locations and provides air freight and cargo services to and from all corners of the world. Major expansion of World Freight Terminal and creation of a new logistics hub will be a significant benefit for the region’s exporters.

Rail: Garston and Widnes have 11 x 300m sidings and 6 container gantry cranes between them for handling rail freight. Seaforth at the Port of Liverpool Docks has 2 x 400m sidings plus headshunt and release lines. Railfreight is a key part of the new Liverpool2 developments that will see new investment in rail-linked terminals for freight.

Sea: Liverpool2 is the deep-water container terminal at the Port of Liverpool. Costing in excess of £300m to build, it is the key project in a much wider scheme being developed by Peel Ports that will transform logistics in the British Isles.Shipping through the new Liverpool2 terminal could eliminate up to 200 miles of road or rail transport per container journey compared to shipping through ports in the South of the UK.