£50m INVESTMENT IN SOUTH WALES

Global engineering company, Renishaw is to invest over £50 million at its Miskin site in South Wales to increase manufacturing capacity and to help meet its Net Zero emission targets.

This will see 400,000ft² (37,000m²) of additional low carbon buildings created at the 193-acre site to the west of Cardiff, consisting of two new production halls and an employee welfare facility. The existing production halls will also be refurbished to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Planning permission for the detailed plans to almost double the footprint of the site, which was acquired by Renishaw in 2011 and currently accommodates 650 employees, was granted by the Vale of Glamorgan Council last year. With the company continuing to see strong business growth and have confidence in its long-term prospects, those plans will now be realised.

This significant investment will give Renishaw the additional manufacturing capacity required to meet its forecast sales growth in the coming years and will also enable it to help achieve its 2028 Net Zero target for Scopes 1 & 2 GHG emissions.

The construction will be completed in phases, with a 15-month programme of work starting in July 2022 to build the first of the new halls (188,800ft²/17,540m²), the welfare facility and supporting infrastructure. The basic shell for the second new production hall (195,800ft²/18,190m²) will be built by December 2024 and will be fully constructed when business levels require its use.

The details of the operations that will take place in each of the new halls is yet to be fully determined, but the additional capacity will allow for increases to machining operations and the assembly of products already built at the site, including Renishaw’s metal additive manufacturing (3D printing) machines.

A vital consideration for the construction programme at the Miskin site is the achievement of Renishaw’s Net Zero Scopes 1 & 2 GHG emissions targets. Therefore, the new facilities will be built with the latest technologies and materials to ensure that they will be Net Zero in operation, and the build will also aim to minimise the amount of embodied carbon within the building materials used in construction.

By the end of 2024, the company also aims to have refurbished the two existing halls at Miskin to reduce their carbon emissions including new energy-efficient cladding and the replacement of existing heating systems. These sustainability investments complement initiatives at the company’s other global sites, including large investments in roof-mounted solar panels, new car port solar panels, and feasibility studies to assess the viability of wind power.

Speaking about the new investment, Gareth Hankins, head of global manufacturing said: “The last two years have highlighted the importance of in-house manufacturing for Renishaw and the control that this gives us in meeting our quality, cost and delivery targets. This significant investment by our Board to increase the Group’s production capabilities demonstrates a huge vote of confidence in our manufacturing operations and people, at an exciting time for the business.”

Source: Production Engineering Solutions