Three major Midlands industry partners form alliance

Three of the major industry partners in the region are to work closer together for the good of the local economy as part of a new 12-month pilot.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) Growth Hub, The Manufacturing Technology Centre, and the WMG, at the University of Warwick, have signed a new agreement which will make it easier for manufacturers to access  equipment and expertise they need to develop new and existing products and processes.

The three organisations will form a working party meeting weekly to co-ordinate areas of common working, ensure that initiatives are shared across the three organisations, and look at joint campaigns.

The partners will  focus on manufacturing and engineering companies across the CWLEP area, and the new alliance will work closely with other partners such as the West Midlands Combined Authority, the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses.

Craig Humphrey, Managing Director of the CWLEP Growth Hub, said: “The three organisations had worked with each other in the past but the pilot would make the collaboration far more effective.

“The three organisations know each other well and collaborate when the need arises, but we have a tremendous amount of common ground and market intelligence which we all felt would be more powerful and useful to local companies if it was harnessed effectively and the formation of the working party is the first stage in that.”

The working party will be overseen by a senior management team which will review its effectiveness on a monthly basis.

Clive Hickman, the founder and Chief Executive of the MTC, said: “We work right across the UK, but are based in Coventry and Warwickshire which is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence for manufacturing and engineering, and believe that we always have more to offer in terms of support to local companies.

“The three organisations are ideally placed in slightly different areas of the market to bring unique advantages to what could be a very powerful alliance.”

Mark Swift, Head of SME Programmes at WMG, University of Warwick said: “The agreement will help manufacturing unlock the opportunities presented by green manufacturing, digitalisation and the journey to Net Zero transport. Coventry and Warwickshire already has very strong partnerships and we believe the work of WMG and the MTC combined with the extensive network and market intelligent of the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP will form a powerful offer to local companies.”

The CWLEP Growth Hub was founded to help companies across the region access support and help in a range of areas and has now helped create more than 5,000 jobs across Coventry and Warwickshire.

The MTC was established in 2010 with the objective of bridging the gap between academia and industry and employs more than 700 staff across three centres – two of which are at Ansty Park, near Coventry.

WMG is an academic department at the University of Warwick and is the leading international role model for successful collaboration between academia and the public and private sectors, driving innovation in science, technology and engineering. They are a founding partner of the HVM Catapult, and are one of seven centres within this government initiative.