New machinery institute ‘will put north on map’
THE former chief executive of Siemens UK has hailed plans for a new multi-million pound Rochdalebased institute that will ‘manufacture tomorrow’s products and materials’.
The planned Advanced Machinery and Productivity Institute (AMPI), which will be based at Kingsway Business Park, is seen as an opportunity for UK manufacturers to sell machines around the world.
It has received government funding totalling £22.6million and is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.
Juergen Maier, who is also the vice chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the institute would put the North on the map.
He said: “AMPI is massively important. When you’re developing a new industrial revolution the real value is not only the new products that you’re making but the machines that make it.
“It’s inevitable that these products will eventually be made elsewhere in the world but you can export all the machinery to these places.”
He also highlighted the importance of the Northern Gateway to levelling up the economy, saying: “As we know, levelling up can’t just be in cities, it needs to be in all the towns around.
“Now is the time to spread that prosperity into the towns and the way to do that is to take some of the technology ideas and start-up ideas that emerge in our universities – and that could be advanced materials – and scale this up.
“You’re manufacturing for the world and that sort of scaled-up manufacturing we want to do in the Northern Gateway and that’s why AMPI has been developed. When you scale up that sort of manufacturing you need machinery, you need automation, you need robotics and that’s where AMPI comes in.”
Mr Maier said it was ‘now or never’ when it came to the Government’s ‘levelling up’ promise: “We’ve been talking about it for an incredibly long time.
“I was very pleased to be involved in the original setup of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, which was five years ago, but the conversation was going for a full decade before that.
“Some good things are happening in Greater Manchester.
“We have in that time invested in great innovation ecosystems around advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, health innovation, cyber security (and) now is the time to really scale all of that up.”
Mr Maier praised the entrepreneurial approach of Rochdale businesses like Crystal Doors and PTG Holroyd and hailed the Northern Gateway, which crosses the boundary between Rochdale and Bury.
But he called on the Government to deliver on its ‘levelling up’ pledge.
He said: “I’ve been up in Rochdale quite a lot recently.
“I visited Crystal Doors and you have (PTG) Holroyd making advanced machinery.
“What you get is a real entrepreneurial sense and a real global outlook on what Rochdale’s place can be in the world. There’s a huge level of ambition.
“What we want to do with AMPI, and what’s happening in Greater Manchester, is provide a few levers that can help more companies like Crystal Doors and Holroyd to establish themselves, become great global companies while operating in Rochdale.”
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