Trade & Investment Minister congratulates Merseyside success stories

Minister of State for Trade & Investment Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham visited Speke today to see two of the region's most successful inward investment companies.

The Minister highlighted the North West as a "real magnet for high-quality manufacturing inward investment."

There has been major investment in Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics and Prinovis Liverpool Ltd this year and it is expected that by 2008 they will have created or safeguarded more than 1,000 jobs in the North West.

Lord Digby Jones toured both premises and met senior company representatives who explained the expansion programmes in detail.

Lord Digby Jones said:

"I was extremely impressed with both the state of the art technology and investment in manufacturing that I have seen at both companies today. Novartis and Prinovis are quality global businesses and the fact that they have chosen to invest in Merseyside is a great testament to the region's reputation as a world class investment location.

"The North West is home to more than 2,200 foreign direct investment businesses contributing 16 per cent gross value added to the region. In my role as Minister of State for Trade and Investment it is my job to both promote North West companies overseas and to help lobby for more inward investment into this growing and dynamic region."

Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics is Europe's most modern vaccine production plant. The Swiss owned company is currently upgrading its Speke operation to include new 240,000 square foot premises, equivalent in size to three football pitches and providing employment for 800 people. The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) also invested £20million to support the project.

The site produces over 40million doses of flu vaccine each year, and exports a significant amount of its production to the USA. Novartis are also working with the Northwest Development Agency to forge links with the Bio/Pharma sector nationally and work closely with the region's universities to encourage more young people to consider careers in science and engineering.

German company Prinovis is a state of the art gravure printing facility, which is one of the largest inward investments in Merseyside in recent years. The company began operations in Liverpool in Summer 2006, just eight months after construction began, and has to date invested £120m in the facility which will employ 420 people when running at full capacity in 2008.

Prinovis Liverpool uses the very latest print technology and works with the UK's biggest publishing houses and retail home shopping customers, producing high quality colour publications included magazines, newspaper supplements and home shopping catalogues.

Lord Jones toured both premises and met senior company representatives who explained the expansion programmes in detail.

During his visit to the region the Minister also met young companies on UK Trade & Investment's Passport to Export Strategy Development Programme, which helps businesses develop their export potential through a series of workshops and assistance from International Trade Advisors.

Media in which the release was featured include:
Daily Post, Friday October 26 2007