Minister congratulates Merseyside success stories

The Minister highlighted the North West as a “real magnet for high-quality manufacturing inward investment”. There has been major investment in Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics and Prinovis Liverpool this year and it is expected that by 2008 they will have created or safeguarded more than 1,000 jobs in the North West. Jones toured both premises and met senior company representatives who explained the expansion programmes in detail, and he said: “I was extremely impressed with both the state of the art technology and investment in manufacturing that I have seen at both companies… Novartis and Prinovis are quality global businesses and the fact that they have chosen to invest in Merseyside is a great testament to the region's reputation as a world-class investment location. “The North West is home to more than 2,200 foreign direct investment businesses contributing 16 per cent gross value added to the region. In my role as Minister of State for Trade and Investment it is my job to both promote North West companies overseas and to help lobby for more inward investment into this growing and dynamic region.” Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics is Europe’s most modern vaccine production plant. The Swiss owned company is currently upgrading its Speke operation to include new 240,000 square foot premises, equivalent in size to three football pitches and providing direct and indirect employment for 800 people. The Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) also invested more than £10 million to support the project. German company Prinovis is a state of the art gravure printing facility, which is one of the largest inward investments in Merseyside in recent years. The company began operations in Liverpool in Summer 2006, just eight months after construction began, and has to date invested £120m in the facility which will employ 420 people when running at full capacity in 2008.