Opportunities for Warwickshire businesses from HS2 supply chain
"The Warwickshire advanced engineering and manufacturing supply chain is well-placed to support the delivery of these new trains."
Warwickshire businesses have a supply chain opportunity as HS2 seeks more UK-based companies to help build its fleet of new high speed trains.
In 2021, the Hitachi/Alstom joint venture was awarded the £2bn contract to build Britain’s next generation of high speed trains at their factories in Derby, County Durham and Crewe. Two-years on, the train-building giants are teaming up with HS2 to find new suppliers who can play a part in the interior fit out of the state-of-the-art trains.
The Warwickshire advanced engineering and manufacturing supply chain is well-placed to support the delivery of these new trains. The county, alongside the city of Coventry, with the wider West Midlands, form the largest vehicle development and manufacturing cluster in the UK, employing over 50,000 in Coventry & Warwickshire alone.
Coventry & Warwickshire is home to the Coventry VLR programme, an innovative mass-transit solution that has brought technologies like light-weighting and battery propulsion into rail from the automotive sector, and the programme promises to deliver a more affordable mass transit solution for small and medium-sized cities in the UK and overseas. Elsewhere, train technology company Porterbrook, from its local base at the Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre near Stratford-upon-Avon, working with the University of Birmingham, delivered the UK’s first demonstration of hydrogen propulsion in rail.
Earlier this month the annual Rail Live event took place at Long Marston. The largest UK trackside and rail technology event of its kind, this year showcased HS2 opportunities for the first time, with record attendance from exhibitors and delegates.
HS2's construction is already supporting around 30,000 jobs and to date 3,000 UK-based businesses have won work on the project. Now, for the first time, the project in decades is getting ready to launch tier two contract opportunities, linked to its fleet of 54 trains, on the open market.
Ruth Todd, HS2’s Chief Commercial Officer said: “My advice to businesses of all sizes is to think outside of the box, as these contract opportunities aren’t limited to companies already working in the rail sector.
“If you’re supplying storage solutions for motor homes, windows for aeroplanes or internal panels for office buildings then we want to hear from you. These contracts present a real opportunity for growth over the next five years, and we want to see more UK businesses thrive as a result of HS2’s construction.”
HS2 is holding a ‘Meet the Contractor’ event in Manchester on Tuesday 11 July to showcase the upcoming opportunities. The event gives business owners the chance to meet one-to-one with Hitachi/Alstom to discuss their bespoke requirements and understand more about the upcoming procurement process. Businesses that specialise in the supply of exterior coatings, decals, emergency equipment, high voltage cables and electrical cubicles are also encouraged to attend.
As contracts will vary in size, value and duration, HS2 is encouraging small businesses to seize the opportunity to break into a new sector and capitalise on the multi-million pound opportunities.
In addition, the latest iteration of the Innovate UK First of a Kind (FOAK) Programme, includes now HS2 for the first time, which also creates opportunities for those companies in design and innovation. Winning projects will be awarded a share of £5.3 million of Department for Transport funding and, for the first time, this year’s competition is partnering with HS2 Ltd, which will also offer £1 million of funding for innovations to speed up or cut costs of high speed rail.
Ian Flynn, Future Mobility Specialist at Invest Coventry & Warwickshire, said: Contract opportunities to date have been around infrastructure and civils, but this is the first time that the production of the actual train cars has come up, since the main contracts were awarded to Hitachi/ Bombardier. This opens up new opportunities for SMEs in the engineering supply chain in and around Warwickshire. There’s also the Innovate UK FOAK Programme, that is also worth looking into."
Opportunities in Rail
More information about the HS2 supply chain event, which is being held on 11th July at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, can be found on HS2’s website or at https://ow.ly/Y6kw50OIKpu
Businesses can express an interest in becoming an HS2 supplier at any time by registering their details on CompeteFor. For information and advice about becoming an HS2 supplier, read HS2’s Supplier Guide.
For Coventry & Warwickshire companies interested in getting into the rail industry supply chain can seek information and support from industry groups like Rail Forum, and supply chain focused business support programmes at BCRRE, Birmingham Centre for Rail Research and Education, part of University of Birmingham, and the largest UK university rail department.
Cutting-edge companies again have the chance to receive government funding in the First of a Kind (FOAK) competition, now in its seventh year, in a bid to improve Britain’s railways. Winning projects will be awarded a share of £5.3 million of Department for Transport funding and, for the first time, this year’s competition is partnering with HS2 Ltd, which will also offer £1 million of funding for innovations to speed up or cut costs of high speed rail.
Contract opportunities linked to the design and build of HS2’s fleet of high speed trains include:
- Exterior Coating
- Skirts (incl. bogie covers, underframe, roof)
- Fabrications
- Electrical Cables and Cabinets/Harnesses (incl. high voltage cable, electrical cubicles)
- Electricals (incl. electrical cubicle)
- Interior assemblies (incl. handles, rails, walls, luggage racks, ceiling modules, decals)
- Insulation, emergency equipment, hoses and pipework