Manufacturing in Shropshire rising to the challenge in style
Shropshire's history would look very different without the overwhelming influence of manufacturing.
The birth of industry in Ironbridge Gorge is a tale that scarcely needs retelling, bringing as it did a complete transformation in the whole world's industrial outlook.
But now, many see manufacturing as something of a secondary issue when it comes to the Shropshire economy.
That, says Lorraine Holmes, the former managing director of the county's Chamber of Commerce and now the boss of the Manufacturing Advice Service, is to overlook one of the best-performing areas of industry in the last year. Manufacturing, she says, is coming home.
"For 18 months we have seen a consistently improving trend in business confidence, and more importantly, we have seen actual sales, order books and levels of investment increasing," she said.
"There has been a real positive change in terms of people actually creating jobs. Manufacturing and construction are always the first to go into recession, but also the first to come out, because there's a lag between when stuff is made and when it goes into shops or starts being used. Although the UK has been in recession, a lot of companies out there are performing very strongly."
The most recent MAS barometer, which looks for trends, plans and confidence among businesses, showed that 23 per cent of firms are looking into returning production to UK shores, while just three per cent have outsourced their services.
Nearly three quarters of firms are expecting to grow between now and April, while 94 per cent are planning to take on new staff or maintain their current workforce, compared to six per cent pulling in their horns and contracting.
But if there's one thing that's different about the near-term future of the Shropshire economy, then it's one thing that stands out on the landscape.
Demand is already rolling in for the services of the new I54 Jaguar Land Rover plant between Telford and Wolverhampton, and that presents great opportunities for county businesses – but just as many challenges.
Mrs Holmes added: "I was with JLR a couple of weeks ago and they are very concerned that with the rate of job creation they have, there isn't the labour available to fulfil their requirements. They have 300 vacancies that they can't fill, and those vacancies will run into the thousands over the next year.
"That's going to be the biggest challenge to manufacturers, getting hold of the right people with the right skills, and the effect is likely to be that people are drawn into the vacancies that are being created from other industries.
"JLR is working with its supply chain, and doesn't want people to move from there into the jobs they are creating if it leaves a gap in that chain.
"What we are finding with a lot of small and medium sized manufacturers is that they don't do longer term skills planning, and only realise they have a problem when a key worker leaves."
Some county companies are already planning for how to take up the slack from the new £500 million plant, which will begin rolling during 2014.
Denso is installing a line that will allow it to provide heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems for the engines being built at I54, while body-in-white pressings giant Stadco has expanded at its Hadley Park plant to provide body panels for the company.
They are both part of a major partnership in Telford which is aimed at bringing through the apprentices who can fill the positions created in the supply chain for the region's burgeoning car industry.
It's not all motors, though. Mrs Holmes believes that, despite Shropshire being the largest landlocked county in Britain, the big opportunity for manufacturers could lie out at sea.
"There's a lot of growth in offshore wind, and the components they need to build their towers are things our manufacturers make anyway.
"That's a market that's going to grow massively in the next 10 to 15 years."
