As one of the biggest manufacturing centres in the UK, Leeds is the place to be for printing, engineering, food production, cosmetics, electronics and much more.

Leeds is the UK’s third largest manufacturing centre, with around 1,900 firms employing almost 40,000 people. Manufacturing accounts for 9% of total employment in Leeds and punches well above its weight by generating 15% of the city’s £13 billion total economic output.

There is a great industrial heritage in Leeds, indeed it was once known as ‘the city that made everything’ thanks to the diversity of its products: from Hunslet steam engines to Burton’s suits, even Portland Cement, one of the world’s most popular building materials, which was patented by Joseph Aspdin in 1824.

And it’s not just the past where there’s a lot to shout about. Despite international trends towards outsourcing manufacturing to developing economies, Leeds companies have maintained and enhanced their position globally through innovation, diversification, and a shift into high tech product solutions which are difficult to replicate overseas.

The city’s manufacturing output value has grown by 6% in the last ten years, with projected growth of more than double that over the next decade.

Innovation
Specialised engineering remains the largest sub-sector with around 13,600 employees. Printing and publishing, medical technology and food and drink production are also major employers. But Leeds manufacturers turn out a wide range of products used across the world, from artificial heart valves, to precision motor components and jet turbine blades.

Leeds-based company Glassflake Ltd is Europe’s largest producer of microscopic flaked glass particles, which are used for a variety of applications from paints and plastics to power stations. Competitors in the Far East have been unable to recreate the company’s high tech production process, and Glassflake is rapidly expanding its share of emerging markets in the region.

General manager Simon Brigham comments: “There is tremendous potential for us to work with Chinese companies. We have recently appointed a network of local agents to service these markets on the ground. We’re already supplying the rapidly expanding Chinese power station network. The car manufacturing industry is another sector we’re examining.”

Print jobs
Leeds is the UK’s largest centre for printing, packaging and publishing outside London, with a workforce of around 8,000.

Leeds Web is the printing arm of Yorkshire Post Newspapers and produces 125 million copies a year, including titles like Yorkshire Post and Yorkshire Evening Post, and other dailies such as the Financial Times.

Chris Green, head of parent company Johnston Press North, explains: “Leeds has one of the largest media communities outside of London, so we have access to an abundance of skilled staff and a wide range of industry suppliers. This enables us to offer our contract customers production techniques that enhance their publications and grow their revenue streams”

Other major firms in the city include Nampak, producer of the new ‘zip-open’ sandwich packs, originally created for Marks and Spencers, which have revolutionised the FMCG packaging market and garnered multiple awards around the world.

Direct mail specialist Blackburns is a key supplier to the city’s financial services sector, providing personalised print, mailing and fulfilment service for major banks and insurance companies.

And there are development opportunities too — Leeds College of Technology is the Centre of Vocational Excellence for Print in the north of England, and provides print courses and training to companies and individuals alike, ensuring a continued supply of skilled staff for the industry.

Appetite for production
Some 4,700 people work in food and drink production in Leeds, with companies ranging from famous national brands to smaller independents.

Northern Foods plc is one of the UK’s leading food producers with around 11,000 employees nationally, and in 2005moved its corporate headquarters to Leeds. The firm was behind the creation of chilled ready meals, has led the frozen pizza market with its Goodfella’s range, and has built on a Yorkshire heritage dating back to 1853 in developing its Fox’s Biscuits brand. It is also a major supplier for the UK food and drink market, producing a variety of supermarket own brand products for customers like Asda, Marks&Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

At the other end of the scale, Bagel Nash opened its first retail outlet in Leeds in 1987. Owners Karen and Uri Mizrahi soon started baking their own bagels — then, as now, they were the only dedicated bagel producer in the north of England.

Initially selling to multiple retailers and frozen food distributors around the country, they quickly found themselves to be one of the fastest growing bagel producers in Europe, employing 40 people at their own bakery in Meanwood and with an expanding chain of retail outlets. Karen Mizrahi explains: “We now export more than 35% of our output to over 20 countries worldwide, throughout mainland Europe and Scandinavia, and to many Arabic countries, including Dubai and Saudi.

So whatever rung of the ladder a Leeds resident occupies, and no matter what their field of interest, opportunities abound within the manufacturing sector.

For more information about manufacturing in Leeds, please visit the Leeds Manufacturing website.