A high-tech US firm has chosen Coventry as the home for its new UK manufacturing headquarters.

IPG Photonics is to create a 50,000 sq ft facility in the city and will create 30 skilled manufacturing jobs.

The project represents a £15million investment in Coventry and comes on the back of several investments in the city which include design and engineering centres for car makers Geely and Polestar and a new McDonald’s distribution centre which is creating 400 jobs.

IPG Photonics is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-performance fibre lasers, which are used in everything from telecoms to medicine.

The news the company had chosen Coventry comes in the wake of the Government launching its West Midlands Local Industrial Strategy.

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Ansty Park
The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Ansty Park

The new IPG Photonics facility will be based at Ansty Park and is set to open by 2020.

Ansty Park was chosen as it is the home of the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), an organisation IPG Photonics will be working closely with.

Its investment demonstrates confidence from the US market and will enable IPG Photonics to accelerate laser-based manufacturing in the UK and serve its growing, global customer base.

The firm is headquartered in Massachusetts, with a number of international sites in locations such as Germany, Russia and Japan.

IPG Photonics is the latest in a string of recent, prominent US investments in the West Midlands worth a combined value of £100m.

The region has a leading role to play

David Goodwin, managing director of IPG Photonics UK, said: “IPG Photonics is investing £15m to create our new UK headquarters in the West Midlands.

“We believe the region will play a leading role in driving the UK’s productivity capabilities and wider industrial strategy – for us, there isn’t a better placed location to accelerate the industrialisation of laser-based manufacturing.

“Through our upcoming, new 50,000 sq ft facility in Coventry’s Ansty Park, we’ll be positioned well within the UK’s manufacturing supply chain, working closely with the Manufacturing Technology Centre, to bring new vertically integrated innovations to the UK market”.

The jobs that are being created

The new base will initially create 30 jobs in the areas of electronic and mechanical production, robotics and laser processing.

The investment from IPG Photonics will include maintaining and upgrading its partnership with the MTC – an advanced manufacturing R&D hub within the Ansty Park technology park.

The Ansty Park site is already home to HTRC, Sainsbury’s, FANUC and the London Electric Vehicle Company.

Commitment to Coventry

Jonathan Browning, chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “The multi-million-pound investment by IPG Photonics into their new site at Ansty Park underlines their commitment to Coventry and Warwickshire and will strengthen our economy."

Mr Browning added: “It is an example of what the West Midlands Local Industrial Strategy promises, as further foundations are provided to boost productivity by investing in skills, industries and infrastructure.

“It is an example of how the West Midlands is already harnessing its distinctive strengths in advanced manufacturing to drive the UK’s response to the Future of Mobility Grand Challenge.”

Manufacturing jobs for local people

Homes England sold the 1.7 hectare site in Ansty Park, to IPG Photonics in June 2018.

Karl Tupling, general manager for the Midlands at Homes England, said: “We have played an important role in developing Ansty Park as one of the most successful business technology parks in the country.

“This in turn is reinforcing this location for high value manufacturing, so it’s great to see IPG Photonics investing in world class facilities at Ansty Park to provide skilled manufacturing jobs for local people.”

Download the CoventryLive app

 

Visit our Facebook pages for Coventry and Nuneaton or visit our Twitter pages for Coventry and Nuneaton

Watch our videos on YouTube and see our photos on  Instagram

Find old stories in our online Archives and search for jobs, motors and property, or place an advert or family notice here