AstraZeneca invests £75m in manufacturing in Cheshire

AstraZeneca to invest £75m in its packaging and manufacturing site in Macclesfield, Cheshire

The money will pay for a packing and warehouse facility at the company’s second largest manufacturing site and European centre for packing.

AstraZeneca's regional vice president Marc Jones said the news ‘confirms the significance of Macclesfield as a major manufacturing facility’ according to Insider Media Limited.

Councillor David Brown, deputy leader of Cheshire East Council, said: “This is fantastic news and a real vote of confidence in Macclesfield, its highly-skilled workforce and in the whole of the bio-science sector in Cheshire East.

“AstraZeneca’s Macclesfield site is a key asset in the Cheshire Science Corridor – accounting for more than one per cent of total UK exports – and part of the borough’s thriving life science sector, which employs more than 7,000 people.”

The news follows the chancellor of the exchequer’s announcement last month that the government would provide £4m to establish a centre of excellence at Alderley Park to spearhead research into anti-microbial resistance (AMR).

He also revealed that Alderley Park would form part of a new hi-tech science Enterprise Zone spanning Cheshire and Warrington.   

September also saw the launch at Alderley Park of a £30m Greater Manchester and Cheshire Life Sciences Fund, which included a £5m investment by the council.

The new facilities announced for Hurdsfield will be built on the site of an existing warehouse and will feature packing lines for tablets and capsules and an automated warehouse.

Demolition work has already begun and construction of the new facility will begin early next month.

The company has also recently invested in a new sterile production facility at its Macclesfield site.