Manchester, 2012-May-18
The site tour coincided with David Cameron’s keynote economic speech to the Institute of Directors in Manchester. The speech focused on the need for the UK to build a sustainable economy based upon a strong manufacturing base, a growing renewable sector and growth across all the regions in the UK. The Prime Minister was also addressing the need for Britain to maintain its focus on rebalancing the economy over the coming decade.
During the tour of the facility, the Prime Minister saw demonstrations of industrial technologies used in a variety of manufacturing sites including power stations, water treatment plants, food processing factories as well as facilities used in the oil and gas sectors.
The technologies demonstrated at the Manchester site are also used in automotive plants such as the Vauxhall Ellesmere Port site which has recently secured strong investment from General Motors.
Prime Minister David Cameron said “Manufacturing is crucial to rebalance the economy towards exports and investment. Siemens provides an enormous contribution to the economy, with major inward investment and employing people across the country to work on projects that will help our long term economic recovery. It was great to meet so many staff and in particular to see the excellent training and opportunities that they provide to young people.”
The Prime Minister met three Siemens employees who had started their career journey as apprentices in the North West. He spoke to the apprentices about their role at Siemens and sought to understand the training they undertook to get the skills needed to contribute to the company as well as the wider economy.
The PM also addressed Siemens employees, thanking the company for its contribution to the UK economy.
Juergen Maier, Managing Director of the Siemens Industry Sector and site manager for the Manchester facility, commented “We welcome the Prime Minister’s renewed commitment to rebalancing the UK economy, and he is right to highlight that the coming months will be tough. It remains critical that we focus on measures that will boost growth and employment, looking at how we can up-skill the UK workforce, equipping the labour market to help it compete on the global economic stage.”
Siemens has more than 2,000 employees based in the North West. At Sir William Siemens House on Princess Road 800 people are employed mostly working in high tech roles in industrial automation, power transmission and distribution.
Siemens plans to create up to a further a further 300 new jobs at the Siemens West Didsbury site over the next three years to support Britain's green infrastructure in key areas: wind power, renewable energy, low-carbon industry, electric car and smart metering infrastructure and energy efficient building technologies. The company recently announced plans to redevelop its Didsbury site to a 100,000 sq ft green technology centre, with help from the Regional Growth Fund worth £3.5m.
Ends
Notes to editors:
About Siemens in the UK:
Siemens was established in the United Kingdom 169 years ago and now employs 12,972 people in the UK. Last year’s revenues were £4.4 billion*. As a leading global engineering and technology services company, Siemens provides innovative solutions to help tackle the world’s major challenges, across the key sectors of energy, industry, infrastructure & cities and healthcare. Siemens has offices and factories throughout the UK, with its headquarters in Frimley, Surrey. The company’s global headquarters is in Munich, Germany. For more information, visit www.siemens.co.uk
* Data includes intercompany revenue. Data may not be comparable with revenue reported in annual or interim reports.
For more information, contact:
Anne Keogh, Siemens plc, tel: +44 (0) 7808 823545
Email : anne.keogh@siemens.com
