Warwickshire is "the ideal" base
"We catch up with every few months about potential funding opportunities coming down the track and they have shared some very interesting connections."
A global company specialising in modern production development has chosen Warwickshire as one of its UK bases
Virtual Manufacturing UK, which aims to deliver sustainable continuous improvement for its clients, has its roots in Sweden and has grown to also have a presence in the United States and Thailand.
In late 2022 the company decided to tap into the UK market and after considering locations throughout the country, decided that the best place to base their office was Warwick.
VMUK now also operates out of Warwick Innovation Centre having been supported with advice from Warwickshire County Council’s Inward Investment and Business & Economy teams.
The company signed up for the Global Growth Programme which is designed to smooth the way for overseas tech businesses to transition into the UK market. The programme offers a range of support on how to establish a UK presence, connect with R&D-rich universities like the University of Warwick, and locate specialist bases like Warwick Innovation Centre which has been home to VMUK’s Midlands office since April.
VMUK’s managing director Richard Gould said: “Having already established successful operations in Sweden, Thailand and the US, we are now building on that experience in the UK and entering a period of significant growth, with many exciting projects both large and small. We needed the right location in the UK, and we are delighted to have chosen Warwickshire. It is a fantastic area for so many sectors and especially automotive and component manufacturers for aerospace.
“Our customer base has a strong focus on the automotive industry, but it is also very diverse. For instance, we are currently working with a leading global furniture manufacturer on one of their facilities in eastern Europe. They operate a large facility and believe its output is not reaching its full potential. To address this, we carried out a detailed 3D scan of the factory to understand the layout. By using flow simulation tools we identify and analyse bottlenecks, buffers, production sequence etc. and can now run different scenarios to optimise processes and increase output.”
The potential for such projects around Coventry and Warwickshire and across the UK has attracted the business to Warwick. The locality has proved immensely welcoming
and supportive, said Henrik Nyby, manufacturing consultant at VMUK.
“I did a Masters at Warwick Manufacturing Group which was really valuable,” he said. “I was very interested in what is happening locally and finding out who to reach out to and spoke to Dirk Schaefer at the University of Warwick Science Park. His advice was brilliant. We also found out about Warwick Innovation Centre which is all we need from a UK base.
“Ian Flynn and Robert Dyer at Warwickshire County Council have also been brilliant. We catch up with every few months about potential funding opportunities coming down the track and they have shared some very interesting connections. There is a lot of scope for business in Warwickshire and we are looking forward to working with more manufacturers in the area.”
* Please find out what support is available to your business by calling Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub on 0300 060 3747 or visiting https://www.cwgrowthhub.co.uk