JUNE 2019 ROUND-UP
Did you hear... The best soundbites from around the industry
“I see a robot tax as perverse. We haven’t got enough robots to
tax anyway. We need more robots, we need more automation.”
Business minister, Andrew Stephenson, argues that a proposed tax
on industrial robotics should be scrapped to help boost productivity.
Pic of the month
“It was clear we were going to experience a dip sooner or later
as some of the stockpiling that took place began to unwind.”
Lee Collinson, the newly appointed head of manufacturing at Barclays,
comments as the May PMI figure falls to 49.4 – a 34-month low.
Bentley Motors has installed the UK’s largest ever solar carport at its factory in Crewe, meaning
100% of the electricity used to manufacture every Bentley is solar or certified green. The
10,000 new solar panels, which have a capacity of 2.7MW, cover over 1,350 car parking spaces
across an area of almost 16,500m². The solar carport takes Bentley’s total on-site solar panel
energy capacity to 7.7MW, enough to provide energy for more than 1,750 homes. Following
the 2013 rooftop installation of over 20,000 panels, the total number of individual solar panels
at the Pyms Lane site now sits at nearly 31,000. “It’s important to look ahead and prepare the
business for the next 100 years by investing significantly in our products, our people and our
site infrastructure,” said Peter Bosch, Bentley’s member of the board for manufacturing. “This
includes new initiatives that reinforce our commitment to the environment.”
Coventry chosen
as EV R&D base
Polestar, the electric
vehicle (EV) company
established by Volvo
as a rival to Tesla, has
chosen Coventry’s
Ansty Park as the home
for its new research and
development centre.
The new facility
will allow Polestar to
increase its own R&D
capabilities, and further
strengthens the brand’s
ability to engineer its
range of vehicles.
Polestar’s UK
engineering operation
will initially employ
around 60 people,
bringing a wealth of
specialist skills to the
company to support
the development of
its future models,
including the recently
launched Polestar 2.
Coventry has also
been named as the
home of a new,
£108 million centre
of excellence for EV
battery technology,
envisaged as a stepping
stone to a large-scale
battery manufacturing
facility. The city was
chosen as the location
for the UK Battery
Industrialisation
Centre following a
nationwide competition.
MM owner purchases engineering portfolio
Mark Allen Group, owner of
Manufacturing Management
and other leading titles in the
engineering and manufacturing
sectors, has announced that it
has purchased Centaur Media
Plc’s engineering portfolio,
including The Engineer magazine
and the Subcon show.
With over 160 years’ heritage
in the sector, The Engineer is
one of the UK’s longest-running
business publications and is
supplemented by Subcon, the
must-attend exhibition for
subcontract manufacturing
professionals, which is held at
Birmingham’s NEC every June.
Ben Allen, chief executive of
Mark Allen Group, said: “The
acquisition of these premium
brands is part of our strategy to
target well-established products
in markets where we believe
there are exciting growth
opportunities. These assets will
further strengthen our existing
manufacturing and engineering
publishing and event portfolio,
which includes titles such as
Manufacturing Management,
New Electronics and Eureka!,
as well as the Engineering
Design Show.”
The acquisition comes
in addition to the launch
by MA Business, a division
of Mark Allen Group, of
a new title for the Irish
market – MADE in Ireland.
It will focus on all aspects
of Ireland’s €100 billion
manufacturing sector. The
first issue will be published
in September this year.
Bentley Motors
www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk 7
Polestar
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk