Waters Corporation has announced the official opening of its new 45,000 square foot manufacturing facility at the Longbridge Business Park in the West Midlands. The new facility more than triples existing operations and enhances the company’s machining capacity to produce critical components for products developed and manufactured at Waters Mass Spectrometry Center of Excellence in Wilmslow, UK and in Wexford, Ireland.
The new Waters facility at Longbridge represents a significant investment in the region, which the company says underscores its commitment to maintaining and growing its local manufacturing capabilities and capacity.
“The opening of our Longbridge facility is an important next step for Waters and our employees with a modern, fit-for-purpose space to support their innovative and important work,” said Chris Ross, Senior Vice President of Global Operations at Waters. “This state-of-the-art precision engineering center expands our manufacturing footprint in the region and also provides a highly desirable working environment to support future growth and the potential for additional skilled jobs.”
“The UK Government is delighted that Waters Corporation is opening a new site at Longbridge. This investment brings new jobs and innovative new technology in precision engineering into the West Midlands – an area that has long welcomed industrial innovation,” said David Clay, British Consul General to New England. “The fact that a leading company like Waters has chosen the UK for this investment is also a great endorsement of the UK talent available in this sector, and we look forward to seeing the new facility have a long-term positive effect in the West Midlands Region.”
Products manufactured at the new site in Longbridge are essential components used in Waters mass spectrometry systems – scientific instruments used by tens of thousands of chemists and analytical scientists worldwide in support of the life, food, environmental, and materials sciences.
The Longbridge facility is a testament to Waters dedication to sustainability. The building, developed by St. Modwen with internal fit-out completed by Briggs & Forrester Engineering Services, was constructed to BREEAM Very Good standard and achieved an Energy Performance Certificate rating of “A.” Key building features include the heating and hot water systems designed to consume zero natural gas and the temperature-controlled production environment allows manufacturing to sub-micron accuracy.
