Member Article

Northminster sells R&D centre to Renishaw

Property business Northminster has sold its largest York-based R&D facility built in the past five years to a Gloucester-based engineering firm, Renishaw.

The centre was commissioned by laser measurement company, Measurement Devices Ltd (MDL) , which was recently acquired by Renishaw.

Work began on the facility in 2010 on spare land adjacent to MDL’s headquarters, and the site has now been sold in a multi-million pound deal.

The buyer, Renishaw, is a specialist in measurement, motion control, spectroscopy and precision machining, and invests approximately 15-18% of its annual sales into R&D.

Redwood House, where the new facility is located, is a 20,000 sq ft site that will allow Renishaw to test long sight lasers in a purpose-built space.

George Burgess, Northminster’s managing director, commented: “MDL is a rapidly-expanding, world-class technical innovator and manufacturer whose growth would have been welcomed anywhere in the UK.

“This is the third building on Northminster Business Park which MDL has occupied since 2004, which has allowed them to expand their business and increase their floor space by 1,600 per cent in eight years, which is a remarkable achievement.

“The University of York and the city’s industrial and technical heritage means that York has a large pool of skilled labour which makes it an attractive location and we have the space, expertise and commitment to enable other successful businesses to establish here.”

Renishaw’s manufacturing services director, Gareth Hankins, added: “They went to a lot of trouble to see that we got the building we require on time and within budget, and were very practical and dependable throughout the course of the project.”

Elaine Ball, MLS’ managing director, also commented: “Northminster Ltd has taken a great deal of care over developing our new facility from the first meeting to hand over and we’re very pleased with what has been achieved which will support our growth plans for many years to come.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .