Renishaw to invest £50m into South Wales site

Global engineering group Renishaw is to invest more than £50m at its Miskin site in South Wales to increase manufacturing capacity and to help meet its Net Zero emissions targets.The investment will lead to the creation of 400,000 sq ft 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.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 (188,800 sq ft), the welfare facility and supporting infrastructure.The basic shell for the second new production hall (195,800 sq ft) 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.Renishaw said 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.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.”