Waters opens new manufacturing facility in Longbridge

Waters Corporation has officially opened a new 45,000ft² manufacturing facility at the Longbridge Business Park in the West Midlands, more than tripling its existing operations and enhancing the company’s machining capacity to produce critical components for products developed and manufactured in the UK at Waters Mass Spectrometry Centre of Excellence in Wilmslow, and in Wexford, Ireland. The new Waters facility at Longbridge represents a significant investment in the area, underscoring the company's commitment to maintaining and growing its local manufacturing capabilities and capacity.

Chris Ross, senior vice president of global operations at Waters, said: “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. This ‘state of the art’ precision engineering centre 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.”

Precision engineering
David Clay, British Consul General to New England, said: “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. The fact that a leading company like Waters has chosen the UK for this investment is also a great endorsement of the local talent available in this sector, and we look forward to seeing the new facility have a long-term positive effect on 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 has been 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.