Building on the strength of manufacturing

Last week, Vince Cable MP visited MACH 2012, at Birmingham’s NEC, and met with a host of advanced manufacturing companies to discuss how to build upon the sector’s strengths.

During his visit, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills spoke with many of the companies exhibiting at this biennial trade event, which is organised by the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) and this year was sponsored by Lloyds TSB Commercial.

Mr Cable said: “I'm delighted to have been invited to MACH 2012 and very pleased to have been able to meet so many of the outstanding engineers and companies that are here.“Whether exhibiting the latest technology or looking to apply it to dynamic businesses, the people here demonstrate the UK’s extraordinary capacity to create, engineer and manufacture world-class products. These technologies feed into the value chains of so many businesses — both here and in the UK — and are vital to creating a thriving, balanced UK economy.”

Simon Pollard, president of the MTA (pictured with Mr Cable), said: “MACH is Britain’s biggest exhibition of manufacturing technology. It lies at the heart of an incredible range of UK supply chains, and the companies that exhibited at MACH 2012 are a mixture of multi-nationals supplying the very best global technology to innovative UK companies and SMEs serving niches and specialist markets.

“For our sector to continue to go from strength-to-strength, we must ensure that it remains competitive on a global scale and that it can easily export its world-class technologies and applications; but to continue to thrive, we must also ensure we develop the engineering talent of tomorrow and the dynamic SMEs that contribute so much to the UK’s manufacturing economy.”